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E^^GLISH  AID  FRENCH  NEUTRALITY 

AND 

THE  A1^GL0-FRE¥CH  ALLIAIJTCE, 


:y<~- 


m  THEIR  EELATI0N3  TO  THE 


UNITED  STATES  &  RUSSIA, 


INCLUDIKQ 


AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  LEADING  POLICY  OF  FKANCE  AND  OF  ENGLAND  FOR 

THE  LAST  TWO  HUNDRED  YEARS— THE  ORIGIN  AND  AIMS  OF  THE 

ALLIANCE— THE  MEANING  OF  THE  CRIMEAN  WAR— AND 

THE  REASON  OF  THE  HOSTILE  ATTITUDE  OF 

THESE  TWO  POWERS  TOWARDS 

THE  UNITED  STATES, 

AND  OF  THE  MOYEMEiN^T  01^  MEXICO, 
WITH  A  STATEMENT  OF  THE 

GENERAL  RESOURCES— THE  ARMY  AND   NAVY   OF  ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE- 
RUSSIA  AND  AMERICA— SHOWING  THE  PRESENT  STRENGTH  AND 
PROBABLE  FUTURE  OF  THESE  FOUR  POWERS. 


crxHE 

UNIVERS/TY 

.QE. 


» 


BY    HEY.    C.    B.    BOYNTON,    D.    D. 


M 


ciisrcmisrATi : 

G.  F.  VENT   &  CO.,   88  WEST  FOURTH   STREET. 

CHICAGO:    112    DEARBORN   STREET. 

1864. 


}ft^^^ 


'tr*\ 


.V 


l/fD'/ 


^^e 


f  Entered,  according  to  an  Act  orCongress,  in  tlie  j'ear  1864,  by 

C.    B.    BOYNTON. 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  and  for  the 
Southern  District  of  Ohio. 


PREFACE 


"  You  have  not  come  to  the  bottom  of  the  conduct  of 
"  Great  Britain,  until  you  have  touched  that  delicate  and 
"  real  foundation  cause,  we  are  too  large  and  strong  a 
"  nation. 

"  This  is  in  my  judgment  the  right  of  the  whole  matter. 
"  A  distinguished  clergymen  of  London,  personally  kind, 
"  and  frieudly  to  me,  said  to  me  in  these  very  words,  '  Mr. 
"Beecher,  you  may  just  as  well  have  it  said  to  you,  you 
"  have  been  growing  so  strong  that  we  had  got  to  take  you 
"  down,  and  we  were  very  glad  when  the  job  was  taken  out 
"  of  our  hands  by  your  own  people.'  When  Mr.  Roebuck 
"  declared  the  same  fact  in  Parliament,  it  was  cheered 
"  immensely.'^ — Mr,  Beecher^s  Speech  in  Brooklyn, 

In  the  same  speech,  Mr.  Beecher  analyses  English  society, 
and  states  what  he  believes  to  be  the  spirit  of  the  different 
classes  in  regard  to  this  country.  His  conclusions,  in 
substance,  are  as  follows : 

"  The  great  commercial  class  is  against  us.  The  influen- 
"  tial  clergymen  and  laymen  of  both  the  Established  Church 
"  and  the  Dissenters  are,  as  a  body,  against  us.  The  nobility, 
"  as  a  class,  are  against  us. 

"Parliament,  in  sympathy  and  wishes,  is  ■Q.yq  to  one 
"  against  us.  .  '  , 

"The  conservative  intelligence  of  Great  Britain  is 
"  against  us,  and  all  there  is  on  the  surface  of  society  repre- 


ft  PREFACE. 

"senting  its  dignities,  its  power,  its  intelligence,  is  anti- 
"  American." 

The  force  of  these  statements,  as  fully  sustaining  the  tone 
and  purpose  of  this  book,  will  be  felt,  when  we  consider 
that  they  are  made  by  one,  who,  more  than  any  other  of 
our  public  men,  seems  anxious  to  place  England  in  the 
most  favorable  light  before  his  countrymen,  and  would  lead 
us  to  expect,  that  in  the  future.  Great  Britain  may  become 
our  friend. 

He  relies,  as  others  do,  upon  the  assumed  fact,  that  the 
nonvoting,  and  in  a  sense,  uninfluential  laboring  classes 
are  in  favor  of  the  ]^orth.  That  a  majority  of  them  are 
thus  friendly  may  be  admitted,  but  few  probably  are  ready 
to  believe,  that  in  spite  of  all  the  great  forces  arrayed 
against  us,  these  nonvoting  laborers  of  England  have  power 
to  shape  her  policy. 

There  is  no  such  enthusiastic  love  of  America  or 
Americans  even  among  the  people  of  England,  as  would 
lead  them  to  band  themselves  together  as  our  champions, 
against  the  Grovernment  and  the  Church,  the  army  and 
navy,  the  nobility,  the  literary  power,  and  the  commercial 
interests  of  the  kingdom. 

The  people  have,  it  is  hoped,  exerted  some  influence  in 
the  change  which  has  been  lately  wrought  in  British  policy, 
but  the  main  causes  are  to  be  sought  in  the  sudden  exhibi- 
tion which  we  have  made  of  military  power,  in  the  strength 
of  our  army,  the  formidable  character  of  our  navy,  the 
superiority  of  our  new  cannon,  and  the  waning  of  the 
power  of  the  rebellion. 

The  central  purpose  in  the  American  policy  of  France  is 
declared  by  the  Emperor  himself  to  be,  to  restore  the 
ascendancy  of  the  Latin  race  in  the  New  World,  and  this 
necessarily  involves  the  supremacy  of  the  Papal  power,  and 


PKEFACE.  5 

tlae  repressing,  if  possible,  the  growth  of  free  Protestant 
institutions.  This,  with  its  consequences,  is  the  settled 
design  of  France. 

The  purpose  of  ITapoleon  in  proposing  a  Congress  of 
nations  is  not  yet  fully  revealed,  but  nothing  is  hazarded  in 
believing  that  his  intention  is  to  make  France  more  com- 
pletely than  ever  the  mistress  of  Europe,  to  strengthen  him- 
self by  new  alliances  with  the  Latin  Powers,  so  as  to  compel 
England  to  follow  his  lead,  or  expose  herself  to  a  formidable 
attack — in  short,  to  render  France  so  powerful  that  she  can 
dictate  terms  and  policy  to  England,  Pussia,  and  America. 
That  these  are  the  intentions  of  the  French  Emperor,  no 
one  who  has  studied  his  past  course,  will  be  likely  to  doubt, 
and  for  these  new  European  combinations,  it  would  be  well 
to  prepare  in  season. 

It  is  then  evident,  that  the  Great  Pebellion  will  introduce 
a  new  era,  not  only  for  our  own  country,  but  for  Europe 
and  the  world. 

It  will  change  the  political  relations  of  European  States 
to  each  other,  and  to  us,  and  will  improve  the  condition  and 
prospects  of  the  people  in  all  lands. 

The  late  movements  here  and  in  Pussia,  by  which  the 
proper  rights  of  millions  of  laboring  men  have  been  ac- 
knowledged and  secured,  form  a  new  starting  point  in 
human  history. 

Under  the  pressure  of  this  war  "  The  United  States  "  have 
become  an  American  ^Nation,  and  this  new-born  nation  has 
been  brought,  by  a  combined  home  and  foreign  conspiracy, 
within  the  circle  of  European  relations,  has  been  compelled 
to  take  its  place  a  Power  among  the  Powers,  and  henceforth 
its  policy  and  its  ability  to  attack  or  defend,  will  form  an 
important  element  in  the  councils  of  the  nations. 

A  new-born  Russia  has  also  presented  itself  to  the  world. 


6  PREFACE. 

The  old  military  despotism  is  gone,  and  in  its  stead  there 
comes  a  Constitutional  Monarchy,  proposing  to  nse  its  vast 
powers  only  for  the  protection  and  elevation  of  humanity. 
Hand  in  hand,  Eussia  and  A^merica  are  crossing  the 
threshold  of  the  new  era,  the  Great  Powers  of  the  future, 
while  "Western  Europe  is  plotting  against  both,  and  threatens 
and  fears  them.  This  book  has  been  written,  in  the  hope 
that  it  may  help  to  explain  the  policy  of  France  and  Eng- 
land, and  what  we  have  to  hope  or  fear. from  them,  to  set 
forth  the  resources  and  mission  of  that  great  nation,  which 
alone  has  remained  our  friend,  and  to  show  the  probable 
future  of  this  l^ew,  Free,  Christian  American  I^ation. 


AUTHORITIES  CONSULTED  IN  PREPARING  THE  WORK. 


BAEON  HAXTHAUSEN'S  NOTES  ON  RUSSIA. 

EHRMAN'S  TRAVELS  IN  RUSSIA. 

OLIPHANT'S  SHORES  OF  THE  BLACK  SEA. 

ALLISON'S  HISTORY  OF  EUROPE. 

RUSSEL'S  MODERN  EUROPE. 

BANCROFT'S  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

PRESOOTT'S  PHILIP  II. 

KINGLAKE'S  INVASION  OF  THE  CRIMEA. 

STANLEY'S  GREEK  CHURCH. 

KAY'S  SOCIAL  CONDITION  OF  ENGLAND. 

HUNT'S  MERCHANT'S  MAGAZINE. 

LONDON  QUARTERLY. 

FOREIGN  QUARTERLY. 

EDINBURGH  REVIEW. 

NORTH  BRITISH  REVIEW. 

SCIENTIFIC  AMERICAN. 

NATIONAL  ALMANAC,  1863  AND  1864. 

UNITED  STATES  SERVICE  MAGAZINE. 

REPORTS  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

REPORTS  OF  THE  ORDINANCE  BUREAU. 

OFFICIAL  DOCUMENTS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  AND  ENGLISH  GOVERNMENTS 

HON.  CHARLES  SUMNER'S  SPEECH  ON  OUR  FOREIGN  RELATIONS. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    I. 
Free  Institutions  placed  on  Trial  before  the  World 13 

CHAPTER   II. 
English  and  French  Neutrality 18 

CHAPTER   III. 
This  Neutrality  Illustrated  by  their  Acts 22 

CHAPTER    IV. 
The  Eemoter  Causes  which  have  Shaped  the  Policy  of  these 
Powers 30  ^ 

CHAPTER    V. 
The  Foreign  and  Domestic  Policy  of  England 47 

CHAPTER   VI.  . 

England  and  the  Eastern  Question 51 

CHAPTER   VII. 
Eemoter  Causes  of  the  present  Policy  of  France 68 

CHAPTER   VIII. 
Condition  of  England,  France,  Eussia  and  America,  when         \     y' 
the  Anglo-French  Alliance  was  Framed * 84 

CHAPTER   IX. 
The  Crimean  War  begun  by  France — In  Origin  a  Eeligious 
War — An  Attempt  of  the  Papacy  to  Eegain  its  Ascendancy 
both  East  and  West 103 


10  CONTENTS. 

C  HAPTER   X. 
The  Eeligious  Aspect  of  the  Eastern  War 119 

CHAPTER   XI. 
The  Papacy  in  its  Connection  with  the  Eastern  Question 134 

CHAPTER    XII. 
England's  Policy  Towards  Russia  in  the  Crimean  "War,  and 
in  Regard  to  the  Eastern  Question 141  ' 

CHAPTER    XIII. 
Had  the  Allies  fully  succeeded  in  the  attack  they  would  have 
held  Turkey  as  a  Colonial  Dependency,  as  England  holds 
India,  and  as  France  intends  to  deal  with  Mexico.... 155 

CHAPTER    XIV. 
The  Future  Movements  of  the  Great  Powers 168 

CHAPTER    XV. 
There  Should  be  an  American  Opinion  of  Russia 173 

CHAPTER    XVI. 
The  Elements  of  National  Power 177 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
The  Territory  of  Russia 183 

CHAPTER    XVIII. 
The  Relative  Position  of  Russia 192 

CHAPTER    XIX. 
Russia  Easily  Governed  from  one  Centre 201 

CHAPTER   XX. 
Russia  Has  Few  Vulnerable  Points 209 

CHAPTER   XXI. 
Russia  Controlled  by  one  Race — This   Gives  Her  a  True 
National  Life 221 

CHAPTER  XXII. 
Character  of  the  Russian  Soldiers 237 


CONTENTS.  11 

CHAPTER    XXIII. 
The  Army  and  Navy  of  Russia 256 

CHAPTER    XXIV. 
The   National   Sentiment  of  Russia   as  Affecting  National 
Policy  and  Desti ny 265 

CHAPTER    XXV. 
The  Educational  Institutions  of  Russia 271 

CHAPTER    XXVI. 
The  Character  of  the  Russian  Intellect 284 

CHAPTER    XXVII. 
Territorial  progress  of  Russia 296 

CHAPTER    XXVIII. 
Russia  Aims  at  a  Civilization  Distinct  from  that  of  Western 
Europe 300 

CHAPTER    XXIX. 
The  National  Idea  of  Russia 321 

CHAPTER    XXX. 
Russia,  like  America,  Aims  to  Grow  by  the  Development  of 
Her  own  Resources 328 

CHAPTER    XXXI. 
The  Russian  Church 343 

CHAPTER    XXXII. 
The  Russian  Church  may  Recover  the  East 360 

CHAPTER    XXXIII. 
Structure  and  Workings  of  the  Russian  Government... ..365 

CHAPTER    XXXIV. 
Russia  as  She  Now  Is,  and  Her  Probable  Future 383 

CHAPTER    XXXV. 
England — Her  Present  Condition — Power  and  Prospects 388 

CHAPTER    XXXVI. 
The  Armies  and  Navies  of  England,  Prance,  America  and 
Russia 439 


12  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   XXXVII. 
The  American  !N"avy  and  Artillery 453 

CHAPTER    XXXVIII. 
The  Armies  of  England,  France  and  America 519 

CHAPTER    XXXIX. 
Summary  of  the  Eelations  of  England,  France,  Eussia  and 
America  to  the  World  and  to  each  other 546 

CHAPTER    XL. 
The  Monroe  Doctrine  and  the  French  in  Mexico 556 

CHAPTER   XLI. 
Conclusion 570 


CHAPTER    I 


FBEE  INSTITUTIONS  PLACED  ON  TEIAL  BEFORE  THE  WORLD. 


The  results  already  attained  in  tlie  progress  of  our  war, 
and  the  sure  promise  of  the  future,  justify  us  in  believing, 
that  one  purpose  of  God  in  permitting  this  rebellion,  was  to 
draw  the  attention  of  the  nations  to  the  free  institutions  of 
the  I^orth,  and  then,  by  putting  them  to  the  severest  possible 
proof,  show  their  excellence  unto  the  people  of  every  land, 
and  thus  advance  the  general  cause  of  human  freedom. 

It  has  been  proved  that  a  popular  Government  is  not 
necessarily  a  weak  one,  and  that  a  free,  unwarlike  people, 
unused  to  the  restraints  of  thorough  organization  and  dis- 
cipline, can  yet  assume  almost  at  once  the  highest  forms  of 
national  life,  can  reshape,  without  confusion,  their  whole 
industrial  energy  to  meet  the  demands  of  sudden  war,  can 
bring  forth  and  organize,  and  hold  in  hand  all  their  resources, 
and  with  all  the  skill  and  science  of  the  age,  can  wield  a 
thoroughly  compacted  national  strength,  greater  in  propor- 
tion to  population  than  has  been  exhibited  by  any  other 
power  of  earth. 

The  people  of  the  whole  civilized  world  are  studying  with 
intense  interest  the  events  which  are  passing  here,  and  the 
prominent  friends  of  freedom  in  Europe  declare  that  we  are 
fighting  here  the  great  battle  of  universal  humanity. 

Doubtless  our  complete  success  in  overthrowing  slavery 
here,  the  emancipation  of  all  our  laborers,  will  give  a  new 
impulse  to  popular  liberty  all  over  the  world,  and  therefore, 


14  FREE   INSTITUTIONS   PLACED 

as  it  would  seem,  God  has  made  the  nations  spectators  of 
this  desperate  fight. 

This  American  war  closes  a  political  era  for  Christendom. 
New  powers  are  being  prepared  as  rulers  in  the  coming  age, 
and  the  race  will  feel  the  power  of  a  higher  life. 

But  in  order  to  show  fully  the  quality  and  the  power  of 
the  life  of  the  free  I^orth,  it  was  necessary  not  only  to  unveil 
the  weakness,  the  cruelty,  the  loathsome  corruption,  the 
ignorance,  and  barbarism  of  slavery,  but  to  give  to  the 
slave-power  great  advantages  in  the  contest,  and  cause  the 
free  States  to  be  taken  by  surprise,  and  compel  them  to  begin 
a  great  war  under  all  possible  disadvantage,  not  only  without 
arms,  and  without  friends,  but  with  thousands  of  foes  within 
giving  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy  without. 

If  a  Government  of  the  people  could  pass  such  a  peril 
safely,  and  win  at  length  a  triumph,  if  it  could  come  forth 
from  the  trial  not  only  a  mighty  compacted  nation,  but  with 
all  its  proper  liberties  secure,  it  would  be  a  lesson  to  which 
kings  and  people  must  alike  give  heed.  The  JSTorth  at  first 
had  nothing  to  oppose  to  this  great  conspiracy,  all  armed 
and  equipped,  but  its  own  free,  irrepressible  life.  And  this 
was  well ;  for  thus  only  could  the  might  of  freedom  be  known. 

Never  were  a  people  more  completely  surprised,  and  even 
bewildered,  than  those  of  the  free  States  were  for  a  time, 
when  the  conspirators  showed  that  they  had  fully  resolved 
to  destroy  the  Government,  and  were  ready  to  begin  a  war. 
The  preparations  of  treason  went  forward  on  all  sides,  and 
men  refused  to  believe  that  the  traitors  were  in  earnest. 
They  would  not  credit  the  evidences  of  their  own  senses. 
They  could  not  be  persuaded  then,  that  Americans  could  be 
guilty  of  such  a  shocking  crime. 

The  incredible  nature  of  the  meditated  villiany,  secured  it 
it  for  a  season,  and  gave  time  to  perfect  its  plans,  and  when 
at  length  the  war  was  actually  begun,  the  North  found 
itself  not  only  unarmed  but  disarmed.  Small  arms  and 
cannon,  forts,  navy  yards,  arsenals,  the  Southern  coast  and 
cities,  the  Gulf,  the  Mississippi  from  the  Ocean  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Ohio,  all  these,  with  few  exceptions,  were  in 


ON  TRIAL  BEFORE  THE  WORLD.  15 

the  hands  of  the  traitors ;  the  small  "  regular  army "  was 
surrendered  on  the  frontier,  the  little  "navy"  was  in  distant 
waters,  a  single  sloop-of-war  only  on  all  the  Atlantic  coast. 
In  addition  to  all  this,  the  Potomac  was  blockaded  by 
batteries,  a  hostile  army  was  within  two  days  march  of 
Washington,  and  the  Capital  was  cut  off  from  communica- 
tion with  the  North.  ]N"aturally,  in  this  hour  of  extreme 
peril,  the  people  of  the  North  and  their  Government,  turned 
to  the  European  States,  expecting,  that  at  the  very  least, 
they  would  sympathize  with  a  regularly  established  Govern- 
ment, in  its  effort  to  suppress  an  uncalled-for  rebellion. 
They  thought  that  those  who  had  ever  dealt  so  sternly  with 
treason  at  home,  would  be  found  on  the  side  of  the  regular 
authorities  here. 

They  expected  that  France,  who  had  generously  aided  us 
to  establish  here  a  Republic,  would  manifest  her  former 
friendship  in  this  our  new  danger,  and  they  thought  that 
England,  who  had  done  and  sacrificed  so  much  in  the  cause 
of  human  freedom,  would  come  promptly  to  our  aid  with 
living  sympathies,  when  the  object  of  the  conspirators  was 
declared  to  be,  to  build  a  slave  empire  on  the  ruins  of  a  free 
Republic. 

If  the  free  States  were  amazed  at  the  conspiracy  itself, 
they  were  confounded  at  the  treatment  they  received  from 
the  two  great  allied  powers  of  Western  Europe.  They 
placed  themselves  at  once  virtually  on  the  side  of  the  rebels. 
They  declared  that  the  "  Great  Republican  Bubble "  had 
burst.  They  gave  the  traitors  ofllcially,  and  at  once,  the 
position  and  privileges  of  proper  belligerents,  they  took  from 
them  the  odium,  and  so  far  as  they  could,  the  guilt  of 
rebellion,  and  relieved  their  corsair  cruisers  from  the  name 
and  fate  of  pirates.  We  were  informed  that  not  one  dollar 
of  money  should  be  loaned  us  wherewith  to  carry  on  our 
war,  and  we  met  both  at  London  and  Paris  only  coldness 
and  repression,  while  the  rebels  were  cheered  and  encouraged 
by  every  act  short  of  recognition,  alliance,  and  war  against 
the  North.  Helpless  almost,  as  the  free  States  were,  in  the 
first  days  of  this  conflict,  nearly  overwhelmed  at  the  first 


16  FREE   INSTITUTIONS   PLACED 

onset  by  the  vast  weight  of  such  a  conspiracy,  not  only  fully 
organized,  but  well  armed  with  its  stolen  weapons,  and 
backed  by  the  sympathies  of  nearly  all  Europe,  Eussia  only 
excepted,  they  showed  little  less  than  a  miraculous  energy 
by  the  manner  in  which  they  first  stood  firm,  and  then 
rallied  their  strength,  and  increased  their  resources  and 
power,  until  the  conspiracy  was  put  under  their  feet,  and 
they  stood  forth  a  new-born  military  nation,  the  equal  of 
the  foremost. 

"We  have  now  reached  a  point  in  our  national  progress, 
where  it  is  needful  to  study  with  jealous  care  the  nature  of 
our  relations  with  Western  Europe. 

The  swift  waning  of  the  power  of  the  rebellion  will 
probably  free  us  from  all  fear  of  intervention,  or  even 
recognition,  and  England  shows  at  present  a  more  kindly 
spirit  which  may  possibly  ripen  into  friendship,  but  France, 
her  ally,  and  with  whom  she  declares  herself  in  perfect 
accord  in  regard  to  American  afi:airs,  France  has  planted 
an  army  just  over  our  border,  and  proposes  to  erect  a  throne 
there  also,  and  to  exercise  an  important  influence  over 
American  affairs,  and  to  dictate,  if  she  can,  a  policy  for  our 
continent. 

It  becomes  us,  therefore,  quickly  to  inquire  what  these 
things  mean.  We  should  know  why  England  and  France 
are  so  ready  and  cordial  with  their  sympathy  for  the  rebels, 
as  if  by  previous  agreement,  and  why  we  were  met  with 
coldness  and  ill-concealed  hostility  from  the  beginning,  as 
if  in  accordance  with  a  policy  which  France  and  England 
had  in  concert  adopted  beforehand. 

We  cannot  safely  trust  to  uncertainties  hereafter.  We 
must  not  again  delude  ourselves  with  false  hopes.  If 
hostility  to  the  American  [Nfation  is  one  feature  of  the 
Anglo-French  Alliance,  if  their  scheme  of  policy  include 
the  crippling  of  America  as  well  as  Eussia,  it  is  high  time 
that  this  were  fully  understood  by  both  nations,  that  in  the 
future  we  may  be  prepared  in  season.  Eussia  and  America 
may,  perhaps,  consider  it  prudent  hereafter  not  to  permit 
each  other  to  be  separately  attacked  by  the  Allied  Powers 
of  Western  Europe. 


ON  TRIAL   BEFORE   THE   WORLD.  J7 

It  becomes  all  Americans  then,  to  study  now  afresh  tlie 
origin  and  aims  of  the  Anglo-French  Alliance,  as  shown 
by  their  own  declarations  and  corresponding  acts,  to  under- 
stand the  policy  and  resources,  the  military  and  naval 
strength  of  these  two  Powers,  and  in  connection  with  these, 
to  become  familiar  with  the  real  character,  power  and  policy 
of  Russia,  and  to  measure  at  the  same  time  our  own  national 
strength  and  capabilities,  and  to  comprehend  our  national 
mission. 


18  ENGLISH  AND  FRENCH  NEUTRALITY. 


CHAPTER  II. 


ENGLISH  AND  FRENCH  NEUTRALITY. 


Our  war  with  tlie  rebellion  is  evidently  near  its  close.  The 
conspirators  have  exhausted  their  means  of  resistance,  and 
submission  or  destruction  is  now  their  only  choice.  "When 
the  end  of  this  conflict  is  reached,  may  we  then  safely  dis- 
band our  armies,  and  lay  up  in  harbors  our  dismantled  war 
ships,  and  securely  give  ourselves  as  heretofore,  exclusively 
to  the  pursuits  of  peace?  Shall  we  continue,  as  before, 
isolated  from  the  affairs  of  Europe,  and  shall  we  be  permitted 
to  pursue  in  quiet  our  own  home  policy,  an  independent 
American  career? 

Or  has  this  war  been  brought  upon  us  merely  to  prepare 
us  for  conflicts  to  come,  which  will  test  still  more  severely 
our  courage,  skill  and  power?  Has  the  Grod  of  nations 
appointed  us  to  a  great  mission  in  behalf  of  the  rights  of 
man,  which  we  could  not  execute  until  we  were  delivered 
from  that  sin  and  curse  which  paralyzed  our  energies, 
prevented  us  from  becoming  a  national  power,  corrupted 
our  morals,  and  stripped  us  of  our  manhood  ?  Was  this 
political  and  social  upheaval  ordered  for  us  as  a  preparatory 
discipline,  and  through  this  baptism  of  blood  and  tears  has 
our  God  consecrated  us  unto  a  nobler  work  ? 

Did  God  take  note  of  the  secret  plottings  of  Western 
Europe,  and  foreseeing  that  they  would  attack  us  whenever 
an  occasion  could  be  found;  has  He  brought  upon  us  the 
Btern  necessity  of  casting  from  us  the  weakness  of  slavery, 


ENGLISH  AND  FRENCH  NEUTRALITY.  19 

adding  thereby  half  a  million  of  fighting  men  to  our 
available  strength ;  has  He  compelled  us  to  consolidate  our 
national  power;  has  He  shown  us  our  resources  and  capa- 
bilities; has  He  made  us  familiar  with  our  strength,  and 
forced  us  to  become  a  great  military  nation,  in  order  to 
prevent  the  meditated  blow  from  Europe,  or  enable  us  to 
meet  it  without  disaster  ? 

If  these  questions  can  be  answered,  it  will  be  by  first 
observing  the  conduct  of  France  and  England  as  neutral 
powers,  and  then  we  may  find  the  meaning  of  this,  in  the 
nature  and  purposes  of  their  alliance,  and  in  the  necessities 
of  their  settled  national  policy. 

In  judging  the  past  acts  of  nations,  even  of  such  as  call 
themselves  Christian,  or  if  we  would  know  what  we  may 
expect  in  the  future,  we  must  remember  that  the  abstract 
right,  the  principles  of  the  Gospel,  have  very  little  direct 
influence  upon  national  policy.  We  have  not  yet  arrived 
at  that  state  of  perfection,  where  righteousness  and  faithful- 
ness are  the  girdle  of  the  loins  of  rulers.  Kings,  Presidents, 
Cabinets,  are  not  expected  to  do  anything  contrary  to 
apparent  interests^  merely  because  it  is  right,  or  to  refrain 
from  any  act,  merely  because  it  is  wrong. 

Each  great  power  of  Europe  has  a  national  policy  of  its 
own,  which  it  will  carry  out  so  far  as  it  has  the  power,  with 
very  little  regard  for  the  rights  or  welfare  of  others,  while 
under  that  artificial  system  devised  to  maintain  what  they 
call  the  "  balance  of  power,"  any  one  is  liable  to  be  attacked, 
merely  because  it  is  more  prosperous  than  its  neighbors. 

Nor  must  Americans  overlook  the  all-important  fact, 
that  the  Allied  Powers  of  Western  Europe  do  seriously 
propose  to  apply  the  European  political  system  to  the  affairs 
of  this  Continent.  Steam  navigation  has  virtually  con- 
densed the  population  of  the  world;  the  spaces  between 
nations  are  scarcely  one-fourth  of  what  they  once  were ; 
the  ocean  which  divides  us  from  Europe  is  now  only  a  strait ; 
and  placed  as  we  are,  almost  side  by  side  with  France  and 
England,  they  see  and  fear  the  advancing  shadow  of  our 
greatness,  and  they  seek  earnestly  the  means  of  hindering 


20  ENGLISH  AND  FRENCH  NEUTRALITY. 

our  progress  and  crippling  our  power.  If  other  means  fail, 
if  we  should  come  forth  from  this  rebellion  with  our  national 
unity  unbroken,  and  our  strength  unimpaired,  they  will 
combine,  and  attempt  by  State  craft,  or  by  force  if  they 
dare,  to  preserve  here  the  "  balance  of  power,"  which  simply 
means  to  prevent  us  by  all  and  any  means,  from  becoming 
an  American  ]N"ation,  great  enough  to  be  independent  of 
them. 

Whoever  expects  less  of  hostility,  or  more  of  friendship 
than  this  from  any  power  of  "Western  Europe,  will  surely 
be  deceived. 

It  is  perhaps  barely  possible  that  England  may  yet  seek 
an  alliance  with  America  to  save  herself  from  France,  but 
that  is  among  the  secrets  of  the  future. 

Kor  must  we  forget,  when  we  attempt  to  forecast  the 
future,  that  the  great  forces  which  move  the  nations  of 
Christendom  are  religious  ones.  By  this  is  meant,  not  that 
national  counsels  are  controlled  by  Christian  principles,  but 
that  the  alliances  and  antagonisms  of  nations  are  largely 
shaped  by  the  influence  of  the  ties  of  race,  and  the  religious 
faith  and  traditions  of  the  people.  It  is  quite  certain  now, 
that  the  civilized  world  is  fast  arraying  itself  under  three 
great  political  divisions,  which  correspond  to  the  three  great 
religious  organizations.  Russia  heads  and  wields  the  Eastern 
Church.  France  is  already  the  actual  leader  of  the  Latin 
race,  and  the  Papal  Church,  while  the  Protestant  power 
is  not  as  yet  so  thoroughly  organized  and  united.  It  has 
not  as  yet  selected  its  head  and  champion.  Where  shall 
we  find  the  great  Protestant  national  leader  of  the  future? 
Will  it  be  Germany  or  England  ?  'Not  unless  great  changes 
are  speedily  wrought.  Will  it  be  America?  Perhaps  so, 
if  she  is  found  worthy. 

The  political  tendencies  of  the  three  great  religious  divi- 
sions of  Christendom  are  perfectly  apparent.  Protestantism 
embodies  itself  naturally  in  free  institutions.  It  seeks 
everywhere,  and  at  all  times,  to  elevate  the  people,  it  desires 
to  enfranchise  universal  humanity.    Russia  and  the  Greek 


ENGLISH  AND  FRENCH  NEUTRALITY.  2J 

Clmrcli  are  moving  in  the  Bame  direction,  and  give  noble 
promise  for  tlie  future. 

The  Papal  Church  is,  as  ever,  the  friend  of  political  and 
ecclesiastical  despotism,  the  bitter  enemy  of  popular  rights 
and  free  institutions;  and  France,  in  striving  to  become 
the  Imperial  Head  of  the  Latin  race  and  Church,  is  the 
Leader  of  a  new  conspiracy  against  the  peace  of  nations 
and  the  liberties  of  man. 

These  facts  must  all  be  considered  in  any  attempt  to  form 
an  opinion  of  the  future  of  Europe  and  America.  They 
show  us  the  true  reasons  for  the  course  which  France  and 
England  have  pursued  since  the  beginning  of  the  rebellion, 
they  show  why  these  Powers  united  for  an  attack  on  Russia, 
and  that  the  same  motives  have  shaped  their  policy  towards 
both  Russia  and  America ;  and  in  the  light  of  these  facts, 
we  may  turn  to  the  misnamed  neutrality  of  these  Govern- 
ments and  read  aright  its  meaning. 


22  THE  NEUTEALIir  ILLUSTKATED  BY  ACTS. 


CHAPTER    III 


THE  NBUTBALITY  ILLUSTRATED  BY  ACTS. 

In  referring  to  the  conduct  of  France  and  England,  no 
friend  of  his  country  or  of  his  race,  would  dwell  upon  their 
unfriendly  acts  for  the  purpose  of  creating  bitterness  of 
feeling,  or  merely  to  keep  alive  the  memories  of  wrong. 

America  desires  only  peace.  She  asks  of  Europe  that 
she  should  be  left  in  quietness  to  work  out  her  own  national 
destiny,  and  to  manage  her  own  affairs,  as  seems  best  to 
her,  without  interference  from  any.  But  the  spirit  which 
has  been  manifested  by  France  and  England,  the  evident 
and  earnest  desire  that  the  Republic  should  be  destroyed, 
the  prompt  and  cheerful  giving  of  sympathy  and  aid  to  our 
rebel  energies,  these  things  should  surely  warn  us  to  watch 
with  jealous  care  their  every  movement,  to  study  carefully 
the  principles  and  objects  of  their  policy,  that  they  may 
have  no  chance  hereafter  to  take  us  unawares. 

While  we  rejoice  at,  and  frankly  and  kindly  accept  for 
what  it  is  worth,  every  friendly  or  forbearing  act,  which 
seems  to  indicate  some  change  of  temper  or  intention,  we 
are  bound  by  every  consideration  of  prudence  and  national 
safety,  to  judge  of  the  present  by  the  past,  and  to  expect 
that  these  nations  hereafter  will  be  guided  as  they  have 
been  thus  far,  not  by  any  friendly  feelings  towards  this 
"Western  Power,  but  by  those  very  principles  of  policy 
which  have  controlled  them  since  the  beginning  of  our  war. 

Their  plans  are  settled  and  far-reaching  ones.  They  are 
not  to  be  suddenly  or  lightly  abandoned.    The  national 


THE   NEUTRALITY  ILLUSTRATED   BY  ACTS.  23 

necessities  of  France  and  England,  as  their  leaders  view 
them,  and  the  policy  which  they  have  jointly  adopted  for 
the  control  of  Christendom,  do  not  permit  them  to  look 
quietly  on  while  Russia  and  America  are  making  such 
rapid  progress. 

Their  alliance  was  framed  in  view  of  a  real  antagonism 
between  their  interests,  and  those  of  Russia  and  America ; 
they  have  made  the  antagonism  an  actual  one  by  a  war 
with  Russia,  and  their  treatment  of  us ;  and  this  should  be 
borne  steadily  in  mind  if  we  would  understand  the  past,  or 
be  prepared  for  the  future.  The  future  will  be  peace,  if  we 
are  strong  enough  to  compel  a  peace,  not  otherwise. 

It  is  important  for  Americans  to  remember  that  the  course 
pursued  by  France  and  England  was  the  result  of  previous 
consultation,  and  positive  agreement  between  them.  At 
the  outset,  they  informed  our  G-overnment  that  the  two 
Powers  would  be  perfectly  united  in  their  policy,  whatever 
it  might  be,  and  in  declaring  this  policy  by  acts,  England 
took  the  lead. 

Her  first  open  and  decided  step  then,  was  taken  in  accord- 
ance with  the  plan  which  the  French  and  English  rulers 
had  decided  upon  beforehand,  and  with  definite  purposes  in 
view.  The  very  manner  and  time  chosen,  must  have  been 
fixed  by  a  previous  decision. 

By  formal  Proclamation  of  the  Queen,  the  Confederate 
rebels,  in  the  very  first  hours  of  their  insurrection,  were 
declared  to  be  rightful  ocean  belligerents  before  they  had  a 
single  ship  afloat,  and  when,  even  if  they  had  ships,  there 
was  not  a  port  on  earth  where  they  could  send  a  prize  for 
trial. 

This  Proclamation  was  issued  when  the  British  rulers 
knew  that  Mr.  Adams,  our  newly  appointed  Minister,  was 
at  Liverpool,  prepared  to  represent  the  cause  of  our  Govern- 
ment, but  with  a  haste  which  revealed  clearly  the  hostile 
intent,  the  design  to  prejudge  and  settle  the  whole  matter 
against  us,  before  we  could  be  heard,  and  to  grant  the  rebels 
privileges  and  a  national  standing,  which  no  efiPbrt  of  ours 
could  recall. 


24  THE  NEUTRALITY  ILLUSTRATED  BY  ACTS. 

They  had  resolved,  after  consulting  with  France,  to 
commit  the  English  and  French  nation  to  a  policy  from 
which  they  could  not  retreat.  It  was  essentially  an  un- 
friendly act.  It  was  known  to  be  so,  it  was  intended  to 
give  aid  and  comfort  to  the  traitors,  to  relieve  them  from 
the  name  and  crime  of  treason  and  piracy,  and  to  win  for 
the  rebellion  the  respect  and  sympathy  of  the  world.  In 
moral  guilt,  as  a  heartless,  selfish  violation  of  national 
friendship,  this  act  was  equal  to  an  alliance  with  the  rebels, 
and  a  declaration  of  war  against  the  American  Government, 
and  every  subsequent  event  has  shown  that  it  was  designed 
to  be  war  in  disguise,  war  without  risk  to  the  two  Allied 
Powers,  but  which  brought  destruction  to  our  commerce, 
and  ministered  the  strength  of  an  alliance  to  our  enemies. 

'No  change  in  conduct,  nor  even  friendship  shown  here- 
after, can  alter  the  character  of  this  first  unfriendly  act. 
It  is  the  one  life  fountain  from  which  the  rebellion  has 
received  vitality  and  power,  France  and  England,  with 
perfectly  agreeing  hostility,  have  employed  the  Confederates 
to  use  against  us  their  powder,  rifles,  cannon,  blockade 
runners,  and  war  ships,  and  these  have  been  employed  to 
advance  their  designs  against  this  Republic  as  really  as  if 
they  had  been  covered  by  the  French  or  English  flags,  and 
a  majority  of  Englishmen  and  Frenchmen  have  rejoiced 
over  every  Eebel  success  as  if  it  were  a  victory  of  their  own, 
and  so  it  really  was.  It  is  mockery  of  the  most  bitter  kind, 
to  remind  us,  as  Englishmen  have  so  often  done,  that  they 
have  furnished  us  also  with  munitions  of  war,  and  that  as 
neutrals  they  sell  alike  to  each  belligerent.  The  wrong, 
flagrant  and  designed,  lies  in  the  previous  act  by  which,  for 
purposes  of  their  own,  and  to  our  deep  injury,  they  pro- 
claimed our  enemies  to  be  lawful  belligerents. 

They  found  a  company  of  rebels  engaged  in  an  insurrection 
against  a  lawful  Government,  in  a  treasonable  conspiracy, 
and  because  they  desired  the  overthrow  of  this  Eepublic, 
and  they  saw  the  traitors  could  be  used  for  this  foul  purpose, 
and  because  they  were  determined  to  give  all  possible  aid 
to  these  rebel  enemies,  and  could  not  assist  them  as  traitors 


THE   NEUTRALITY  ILLUSTRATED   BY  ACTS.  2B 

and  rebels,  without  disgrace,  the  French  and  English  politi- 
cal magicians  touched  these  rebels  with  the  wand  of  royal 
proclamation,  and  lo !  the  conspirators  were  transformed 
into  lawful  and  highly  respectable  belligerents,  on  equal 
footing  with  the  lawful  Government,  and  France  and  Eng- 
land were,  of  course,  neutral  powers,  and  with  rights  derived 
solely  from  their  own  proclamation,  they  proceeded  to 
strengthen  the  rebels  with  all  manner  of  moral  and  material 
support,  because  they  had  changed  them  from  traitors  to 
belligerents  for  this  very  purpose. 

The  two  Powers  are  mentioned  together  as  concerned  in 
the  Proclamation,  because  from  the  first  they  declared  that 
they  were  perfectly  united  in  their  American  policy. 

Every  subsequent  act  of  these  two  Powers  seems  to  have 
been  conceived  in  the  spirit  of  the  Queen's  Proclamation  ; 
there  has  not  been  a  single  instance,  down  to  the  seizing  of 
the  Eebel  Rams,  in  which  the  English  or  French  Govern- 
ment deigned  to  assume  even  the  appearance  of  friendship. 
A  cold,  harsh,  unfriendly  temper,  a  spirit  that  sought  occa- 
sion against  us,  watching  for  a  cause  of  quarrel,  was  evident 
in  all  their  intercourse.  They  did  not  attempt  to  conceal 
that  they  sympathized  with  the  rebels,  that  they  desired 
their  success,  and  the  overthrow  of  the  Republic ;  they 
assumed  constantly  that  the  Union  was  destroyed  already, 
and  would  never  be  restored,  and  their  every  act  was  in- 
tended, it  would  seem,  to  prove  the  assertion  true. 

And  unless  it  was  a  part  of  the  original  plan  to  interfere 
by  force,  when  the  occasion  should  come,  and  crush  us  in 
our  hour  of  peril  and  weakness,  there  seems  no  way  to 
explain  the  conduct  of  England  in  the  affair  of  the  Trent. 
Unless  British  statesmen  had  then  determined  upon  war,  as 
a  certain  means  of  securing  the  independence  of  the  South, 
and  the  destruction  of  our  Government,  what  meaning  can 
we  attach  -to  their  acts  ?  They  knew  perfectly  well  that  the 
seizure  of  the  Trent  was  not  intended  by  our  Government ; 
they  knew  that  not  only  did  our  of&cer  act  without  orders, 
but  that  his  act  was  repudiated  by  our  authorities ;  they  had 
official  knowledge  of  all  this,  and  yet  they  purposely  with- 


26  THE   NEUTRALITY   ILLUSTRATED   BY  ACTS. 

held  all  this  from  the  knowledge  of  the  English  people, 
while  all  means  were  being  earnestly  used  to  inflame  the 
popular  mind  to  a  degree  that  would  render  a  war  inevitable. 
If  the  English  Government  did  not  then  intend  war,  why 
did  it  withhold  the  information  which  it  had  of  our  peace- 
ful disposition,  and  of  our  willingness  to  make  honorable 
amends  for  the  seeming  wrong. 

It  seems  impossible  to  resist  the  conclusion,  that  England 
then  thought  that  with  a  single  blow  she  could  establish 
the  South  and  free  herself  forever  from  the  fear  and  the 
rivalry  of  a  great  American  ITation.  She  knew  perfectly 
that  America  desired  nothing  more  than  peace  and  friend- 
ship with  France  and  England,  and  unless  she  intended  to 
force  us  into  a  war  that  would  be  fatal  to  our  nation,  why 
did  she  suppress  the  truth,  why  did  she  suffer  the  English 
people  to  be  imposed  upon,  and  goaded  into  fury  by  false- 
hood, and  appeals  to  national  jealousy  and  pride? 

These  things  are  referred  to,  not  to  stimulate  ill-feeling  or 
a  desire  for  revenge,  but  because  we  should  be  admonished 
by  the  past  what  to  expect  in  the  future.  These  acts  were 
the  result  of  settled  policy  on  the  part  of  France  and  England 
both,  as  will  be  seen  before  the  subject  is  dismissed,  and  that 
policy  will  not  be  abandoned,  until  great  changes  are  wrought 
in  the  political  relations  of  Europe.  These  Allied  Powers 
may  be  actively  hostile,  or  ostensibly  friendly  toward  us, 
as  circumstances  may  demand,  but  their  national  policy,  in 
regard  to  both  America  and  Russia,  will  remain  unchanged 
until  revolution  sweeps  over  Europe. 

The  objects  aimed  at  by  the  Proclamation  are  set  in  the 
clearest  light  by  what  has  since  occurred.  It  opened  at 
once  for  England  a  great  market  for  all  kinds  of  munitions 
of  war,  and  every  other  species  of  goods  which,  by  swift 
steamers,  and  from  her  adjacent  ports,  could  be  rim  through 
the  lines  of  our  blockade.  These  goods  would  greatly  in- 
crease the  courage  and  power  of  our  enemy,  and  enable  the 
conspirators,  in  all  probability,  to  compel  a  separation  of 
our  territory,  and  this  would  render  impossible  a  great 
American  !N"ation. 


THE   NEUTRALITr  ILLUSTRATED   BY  ACTS.  27 

It  enabled  England  to  build  a  navy  for  the  Eebels,  arm 
and  man  tbeir  ships  in  her  own  ports,  as  she  did  the  Alabama 
and  others,  and  these  could  cripple  our  commerce  in  two 
ways,  by  the  destruction  of  our  ships  at  sea,  and  by  rendering 
them  everywhere  insecure,  so  as  to  transfer  even  our  own 
trade  to  the  British  flag. 

These  two  things  have  come  to  pass  with  immense  injury 
to  us,  they  are  results  easily  foreseen,  were  inevitable  even, 
and  we  have  a  right,  therefore,  to  believe  that  this  was 
aimed  at  in  the  Proclamation.  ITor  can  Americans  safely 
forget  one  important  part  of  the  sad  evidence  of  the  hostility 
of  England  in  particular,  that  nearly  the  whole  literary 
power  of  the  Kingdom  was  employed,  as  if  in  concert,  to 
injure  the  cause  of  the  American  Government  in  the  eyes 
of  the  world. 

The  most  popular  letter-writer  of  England  was  sent  to 
this  country  with  the  scarcely  veiled  intention  of  presenting 
the  !N"orth  and  its  cause,  in  the  worst  possible  light  to  the 
world,  and  of  painting  the  conspirators  as  making  a  heroic 
effort  for  independence. 

Not  alone  the  Times,  which  in  spite  of  all  denial,  reflects 
in  the  main  more  faithfully  than  any  other  paper  the  pre- 
vailing temper  of  England,  but  the  graver  Quarterlies,  which 
had  hitherto  shown  some  candor  in  regard  to  our  country, 
joined  in  the  general  outcry,  and  lent  their  powerful  aid  in 
misleading  and  inflaming  the  public  mind,  and  exciting 
against  us  and  our  cause  the  prejudices  of  Continental 
Europe. 

These  things  were  not  accidental.  They  were  evidently 
parts  of  a  general  plan,  all  bearing  upon  one  purpose,  the 
success  of  the  Rebel  cause,  the  destruction  of  our  ]^ational 
Union.  The  statements  and  arguments  of  the  British  Press 
were  contrary  to  all  the  main  facts  in  the  case,  and  we 
cannot  think  that  educated  Englishmen  were  utterly 
ignorant  of  our  condition  and  our  purposes.  "We  cannot 
but  believe  in  the  clear  light  of  all  the  facts,  that  the  inten- 
tion was  to  make  a  case  that  should  justify  the  hostile 
attitude  which  they  had  assumed. 


28 


THE   NEUTRALITY  ILLUSTRATED   BY  ACTS. 


No  one  will  believe  tliat  it  was  any  surprise,  or  thought- 
less haste,  or  sudden  irritation,  that  could  induce  cool, 
experienced  British  statesmen  to  ignore  both  the  principles 
and  practice  of  their  Government  in  regard  to  conspiracy 
and  rebellion,  to  forget  that  their  island  has  been  crimsoned 
with  blood  shed  to  maintain  the  authority  of  the  regular 
Government,  to  cast  behind  them  all  the  testimony  and  all 
the  acts  of  England  against  human  slavery,  and  place 
themselves,  and  the  nation  which  they  represented,  by  the 
side  of  conspirators,  who  were  not  only  banded  together  to 
overthrow  a  regular  Government,  but  to  establish  a  slave- 
holding  despotism. 

It  is  evident,  that  motives  of  no  ordinary  power  must 
have  swayed  the  British  Government  in  adopting  such  a 
course,  and  equally  strong  must  have  been  the  influence 
which  swept  France  away  from  all  her  precedents,  and 
severed  the  friendly  relations  which  had  been  the  growth 
of  more  than  half  a  century. 

The  motives  of  both  nations  must  be  sought  in  the  nature 
and  purposes  of  their  alliance,  which  will  be  more  fully 
explained  hereafter.  In  carrying  out  the  policy  agreed 
upon  by  the  allies,  a  separate  part  was  assigned  to  France, 
in  the  execution  of  which,  England  cordially  sustained  her, 
as  she  herself  declared,  for  she  was  careful  to  assure  the 
world,  that  she  approved  the  movement  of  France  upon 
Mexico,  and  she  supported  her  words  by  the  presence  and 
co-operation  of  her  fleet.  ISTor  does  the  withdrawal  of  her 
ships,  after  the  landing  was  effected,  prove  by  any  means 
that  the  ultimate  aims  of  France  were  either  unknown  or 
not  approved.  Far  otherwise.  Great  Britain  has  uttered 
no  note  of  remonstrance ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  France  is 
commended  for  daring  to  defy  us  on  the  subject  of  the 
Monroe  Doctrine,  and  is  given  to  understand  that  England 
will  be  pleased  to  see  what  is  called  a  stable  Government  in 
Mexico,  and  this  is  a  full  endorsement  of  a  most  iniquitous 
scheme  of  invasion  and  conquest,  the  most  wicked  and 
causeless  attack  of  the  strong  on  the  weak,  which  modern 
times  have  seen. 


THE   NEUTRALITY  ILLUSTRATED   BY  ACTS.  29 

The  work  of  France  then,  was  not  one  of  personal  ambi- 
tion only,  it  was  a  part  also  of  the  general  scheme  of  both 
nations  to  humble  and  cripple  the  Great  Republic,  to  check 
the  growth  of  a  naval,  commercial,  and  manufacturing 
nation,  England  the  while  indifferent  to  the  fact,  that  the 
success  of  the  plan  would  overthrow  free  institutions  and 
the  Protestant  faith  on  all  this  Western  Continent. 

Spain  and  England  politely  escorted  the  French  fleet  and 
army  to  Mexico,  and  then  left  France  to  plant  her  army  on 
shore,  to  begin  a  causeless  war,  and  capture  the  Mexican 
cities,  to  proclaim  a  Government  in  opposition  to  the  wishes 
of  the  people ;  to  establish,  indeed,  a  vast  French  camp  on 
the  flank  of  the  Republic,  with  wishful  eyes  turned  on 
California,  Texas,  and  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  de- 
claring her  purpose  to  be,  to  check  the  progress  of  the 
Protestant  Republic,  and  reassert  on  this  Continent  the 
supremacy  of  the  Latin  race  and  Roman  Church.  Such 
are  some  of  the  acts  of  these  miscalled  neutral  powers,  and 
prudence  demands  that  we  should  study  carefully  their 
meaning.  What  are  the  national  necessities  of  these  two 
Governments,  out  of  which  this  policy  has  sprung  ?  This 
question  requires  an  answer. 


80  THE   BEMOTER   CAUSES   WHICH   HAVE   SHAPED 


CHAPTER    IV. 


THE  REMOTER  CAUSES  WHICH  HAVE  SHAPED  THE  NATIONAL  P>»»lC7  OF 
FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND. 


In  studying  the  course  of  these  Allied  Powers  toward 
America,  it  is  not  necessary  to  assume  that  it  has  been 
dictated  by  any  special  hatred  of  the  American  people,  that 
all  the  old  friendship  of  France  has  been  suddenly  turned 
to  gall  and  bitterness,  or  that  England  is  watching  to  repay 
the  ancient  grudge  caused  by  the  separation  of  our  colonies. 

There  is  no  such  animosity  between  these  nations  and 
our  own  as  demands  a  war.  Left  to  their  own  impulses, 
the  people  of  these  countries  would  not  only  live  in  peace, 
but  would  gladly  cultivate  friendly  relations.  But  whoever 
builds  a  hope  of  continued  peace,  merely  upon  the  absence 
of  hostile  feeling,  or  upon  such  popular  friendship  as  may 
exist,  will  surely  be  deluded.  France  and  England  will  be 
governed  only  by  considerations  of  national  policy.  Back 
of  all  friendly  feelings,  whatever  they  may  be,  back  of  all 
influences  of  the  ties  of  race,  language  and  religion,  which 
might  otherwise  move  England,  are  the  stern  necessities  of 
her  British  policy,  by  which  she  will  be  inevitably  controlled. 

England's  commercial  and  manufacturing  interests,  Eng- 
land's power  and  supremacy  aniong  nations,  these  will  be 
first  considered ;  all  else  will  be  coldly  thrust  aside.  The 
English  people  may  be  suddenly  kindled  into  a  perfect  blaze 
of  wrath,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Trent,  but  the  moment  it  was 
seen  that  British  policy  did  not  then  demand  a  war,  the 
angry  fires  burned  harmlessly  out. 


THE   NATIONAL   POLICY   OF   FRANCE   AND   ENGLAND.  31 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  by  no  means  safe  to  suppose  that, 
because  Mr.  Beecher's  efforts  were  applauded  by  so  many 
thousands,  that  therefore  all  apprehensions  may  be  laid 
aside,  and  our  safe  course  now  is  to  caress  the  British  Lion 
into  quietness  and  friendship.  It  would  be  a  short-sighted 
and  dangerous  policy  to  place  any  reliance  upon  such  mani- 
festations as  these. 

The  necessities  of  England's  position  will  override  all  this. 
If  the  Anglo-French  Alliance  continues,  and  these  powers 
pursue  the  policy  with  which  it  was  formed,  they  will  remain 
in  real  antagonism  to  Russia  and  America,  and  the  struggle 
for  the  mastery  will  surely  come.  Let  us  do  our  part  in 
the  preserving  of  peace ;  yet  by  all  means,  prepare  for  the 
future. 

In  studying  the  policy  of  the  Great  Powers  of  Christen- 
dom, we  must  remember,  that  the  greatness  and  power  of 
a  nation  in  this  age,  depend  upon  the  extent  of  its  commerce 
and  manufactures. 

War  itself  has  become  as  much  a  question  of  capital  and 
machinery,  as  the  working  of  a  cotton  mill.  But  the  capital 
made  for  a  great  and  long  war  can  only  be  created  through 
manufactures  and  commerce,  and  therefore,  a  nation  must 
be  commercially  great  in  order  to  become  a  first-rate  mili- 
tary power — and  to  great  wealth  must  be  added  skill,  in 
the  production  and  use  of  machinery. 

Battles  by  land  and  sea  are  fought  more  and  more  each 
year  by  machinery.  These  remarks  apply  with  peculiar 
force  to  France  and  England.  Their  future  supremacy 
depends  upon  their  commerce  and  manufactures,  and  armies 
and  navies  are  needed  by  them  mainly  to  extend  and  secure 
these  great  interests,  which  are  the  sources  of  their  wealth 
and  power.  Bonaparte  found  that,  although  he  could  over- 
run Europe  by  mere  military  power  and  skill,  that  he  could 
lay  no  permanent  foundation  of  a  great  Empire,  except  upon 
a  manufacturing  and  commercial  basis,  such  as  England  had 
created ;  and  from  that  time  France  has  been  endeavoring 
to  obtain  for  herself  extensive  colonies,  and  to  create  both 
a  great  navy  and  a  commercial  marine. 


32  THE  KEMOTER  CAUSES   WHICH   HAVE   SHAPED 

If  we  add  to  these  interests,  the  influence  of  the  great 
rehgious  organizations  of  Europe,  we  shall  have  the  key  to 
the  whole  policy  of  England  and  the  great  powers  of  the 
Continent. 

European  wars  just  now  are  not  waged  for  an  idea,  not- 
withstanding what  France  has  said.  England  will  make 
war,  if  necessary,  to  protect  the  sources  of  her  wealth,  and 
to  crush  a  commercial  rival;  France  may  do  the  same  to 
add  to  her  colonies  or  increase  her  territory,  that  her  com- 
merce and  manufactures  may  grow,  and  she  may  use  the 
idea  of  restoring  the  prestige  of  the  Latin  race  as  best  suited 
to  her  purpose ;  but  she  will  prepare  no  armies  or  navies 
merely  to  propagate  or  defend  a  principle. 

In  order  to  understand  the  commercial  necessities  of  the 
Great  Powers  of  Modern  Europe,  it  is  necessary  to  trace 
from  afar  the  movements  of  the  commerce  of  the  world. 

From  the  earliest  ages,  to  which  history  reaches  even 
with  an  uncertain  light,  it  is  found  that  wealth,  civilization, 
and  power  are  connected  with  the  commerce  of  eastern 
Asia,  India,  China,  and  the  East  Indian  Archipelago. 
Wherever  a  depot  could  be  formed  for  the  reception  of  the 
precious  merchandise  of  the  "  far  East,"  there  was  a  mag- 
nificent center  of  dominion.  From  this  source  Egypt  derived 
much,  or  most  of  her  enormous  wealth.  Her  upper  and  lower 
Capitals  were  each  connected  with  the  Red  Sea  and  so  with 
India,  one  by  the  celebrated  ship  canal,  portions  of  whose 
bed  still  are  visible,  and  the  other  by  a  graded  road  from 
Karnac  to  Kosseir,  and  their  wonderful  ruins  sufficiently 
attest  how  Egypt  fattened  both  upon  the  military  and  com- 
mercial spoils  of  India  and  the  eastern  Islands.  Solomon 
with  his  Indian  seaport  at  Ezion  Ceber  on  the  Elanitic 
Gulf,  directed  a  portion  of  that  commerce  by  sea  toward 
Jerusalem,  while  Palmyra,  that  beautiful  miracle  of  the 
desert,  was  created  by  the  trade  of  the  caravans,  and  the 
enriching  effects  upon  Judea  are  graphically  described  in  the 
Scriptures,  where  it  is  said,  that  iron  became  as  stones,  and 
silver  as  iron,  and  gold  as  silver  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem. 

Again,  when  this  trade  was  centered  upon  the  eastern 


Cfil^lffiy^Sk^mAJj   POLICY   OF   FRANCE   AND   ENGLAND.  33 

shore  of  tlie  Mediterranean,  it  produced  Tyre,  that  ocean 
queen,  and  Sidon,  scarcely  inferior.  It  was  a  vast  commer- 
cial idea,  and  not  simply  a  mad  thirst  for  useless  conquest 
that  originated  the  eastern  expedition  of  Alexander.  It 
was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  conceptions  of  any  man  in 
any  age,  considering  the  birth,  education  and  position  of 
the  young  Macedonian,  dying  as  he  did  almost  in  youth, 
in  his  thirty-third  year.  It  was  the  establishment  of  a 
mighty  empire,  with  an  Eastern  capital  as  its  center,  to  be 
enriched  by  the  control  of  the  commerce  of  India.  For 
this  purpose  he  founded  Alexandria,  and  attempted  to  con- 
trol all  the  East. 

A  French  writer  bears  the  following  testimony  to  the 
sagacity  of  Alexander :  "  Alexander  opened  to  Europe  the 
commerce  of  the  Indian  seas,  and  of  Eastern  Africa,  by  a 
road,  which  if  it  was  at  the  present  day  free  and  perfected  as 
it  ought  to  be,  would  cause  the  way  by  the  Cape  of  Grood 
Hope  to  be  entirely  abandoned."  At  the  same  time,  Alex- 
ander and  his  successors  did  not  overlook  that  more 
northern  route  upon  which  Eussia  has  her  eye  now  fixed, 
by  the  Caspian  and  Black  Seas,  and  whose  advantages  were 
so  long  enjoyed. 

Alexander  built  cities  on  the  south  and  east  of  the  Cas- 
pian, while  one  of  his  immediate  successors  attempted  to- 
unite  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Caspian  by  means  of  a  canal 
connecting  the  Hiver  Kouban,  which  empties  into  the 
Euxine,  with  the  Kouma  which  flows  into  the  Caspian, 
thus  stretching  a  line  of  navigation  eastward  toward  India. 

The  idea  of  Alexander  was  long  and  fondly  dwelt  upon 
by  Napoleon,  and  gave  rise  to  his  expedition  into  Egypt. 
He  saw  that  if  the  East  Indian  commerce  could  be  diverted 
from  its  route  by  the  "  stormy  Cape,"  and  brought  once 
more  along  its  ancient  channels,  through  the  Red  Sfea  to 
Egypt,  that  it  would  change  the  seat  of  the  world's  wealth 
and  dominion,  and  restore  to  their  former  importance  the 
eastern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  England  has  under^ 
taken  to  monopolize  this  trade,  by  conquering  and  holding 
the  very  countries  where  it  originates,  and  while  she  makes 
3 


34  THE   REMOTER   CAUSES   WHICH    HAVE   SHAPED 

Europe  echo  with  her  bitter  condemnation  of  the  aggres- 
sions of  Russia,  she  seems  to  forget  that  the  annals  of 
earth  do  not  present  a  record  of  a  more  grasping,  selfish, 
and  cruel  policy  than  that  which  has  marked  her  course  in 
India.  There  is  no  act  of  ambition  or  fraud,  selfishness  or 
oppression,  which  Great  Britain  has  ever  charged  upon 
Russia  in  her  acquisitions  in  Europe  and  Asia,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  opening  a  highway  to  China  and  northern  India, 
for  which  impartial  history  will  not  find  at  least  a  parallel 
in  the  manner  in  which  England  has  sought  occasions  of 
quarrel  and  interference  in  India,  and  trampled  down  the 
weak  and  wrested  their  possessions  away,  for  the  purpose 
of  controlling  this  very  commerce  of  which  Russia  once 
enjoyed  a  part,  and  which  she  is  now  seeking  to  share  with 
the  rest  of  Europe. 

The  importance  of  that  portion  of  this  trade  which  once 
poured  into  Europe  by  the  Black  Sea,  must  not  be  forgotten 
in  an  estimate  of  the  present  course  and  aims  of  Russia. 
An  active  commerce  between  India  and  the  West  was  car- 
ried on  along  this  route,  in  the  remotest  antiquity  to  which 
the  light  of  history  has  reached.  The  Phoenicians  who  are 
said  to  have  possessed  a  powerful  navy  two  thousand  years 
before  the  Christian  era,  established  colonies  and  built 
cities  both  on  the  Dardanelles  and  the  shores  of  the  Black 
Sea,  which  flourished  upon  the  trade  of  the  remote  East. 
The  description  of  the  traffic  of  Tyre,  in  the  twenty-seventh 
chapter  of  Ezekiel,  shows  that  horses,  mules,  slaves,  and 
other  articles  were  brought  from  the  Black  Sea  and  the 
Caspian,  while  from  thence  also,  she  hired  the  soldiers  by 
which  her  walls  were  defended.  The  route  traversed  by 
those  merchants  who  brought  her  the  silks  and  spices  of 
China  and  India  is  not  mentioned,  but  we  should  infer  from 
other  facts,  that  the  course  of  a  part  of  this  trade  was  by 
the  Sea  of  Aral,  the  Caspian  and  the  Euxine. 

Troy,  at  or  near  the  entrance  of  the  Dardanelles,  was  also 
an  opulent  emporium  of  eastern  commerce,  whose  power  is 
attested  by  the  ten  years  siege.  This  city  seems  to  have 
been  attacked  because,  as  Constantinople  now  does,  it  com- 


THE  NATIONAL   POLICY   OF   FRANCE   AND  ENGLAND.  35 

manded  the  gates  of  tlie  Black  Sea,  whose  commerce  was 
coveted  by  the  rising  and  aspiring  Greeks ;  and  thus,  many 
centuries  before  the  coming  of  Christ,  the  theater  of  the 
Crimean  war  was  the  scene  of  bloody  conflicts,  whose  objects 
were  similar  to  those  which  have  stirred  up  the  strife  of 
modern  times — ^the  command  of  the  Euxine  and  the  adja- 
cent waters,  with  the  traffic  of  the  East. 

The  Colchians,  at  the  foot  of  the  Caucasus,  having 
sprung,  as  is  supposed,  from  an  Egyptian  colony  became 
greatly  enriched  by  this  commerce  with  China,  India  and 
the  intermediate  regions,  and  their  wealth  and  luxury  having 
attracted  the  cupidity  of  the  piratical  Greeks,  gave  rise, 
probably,  to  the  famous  Argonautic  expedition,  in  which 
some  of  the  towns  of  the  Colchians  on  the  Black  Sea  were 
pillaged.  This  lucrative  commerce  was  soon  after  monop- 
olized by  the  rising  power  and  maritime  superiority  of  the 
Greeks, Vho  not  only  controlled  the  trade  which  flowed  into 
the  Euxine  by  its  numerous  rivers,  but  extended  a  line  of 
towns  and  citadels,  or  fortified  halting  places  for  the  cara- 
vans far  eastward  toward  India.  For  centuries,  the  highway 
from  Greece  to  India  lay  along  the  Black  Sea,  the  Caspian, 
and  the  Sea  of  Aral,  the  precise  route  which  Russia  is  intent 
upon  re-establishing  now. 

About  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  Christ,  the 
countries  on  the  eastern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  con- 
tended with  Eome  for  the  riches  of  the  Black  Sea  commerce. 
In  this  contest  Rome  was  victorious,  and  the  Euxine  became 
a  closed  sea,  a  Roman  lake,  and  under  Pompey  the  country 
was  explored  toward  India  for  the  purpose  of  extending  the 
commerce  by  which  Asia  Minor  had  been  enriched.  The 
civil  wars  which  followed,  occupied  soon  after  the  whole 
attention  of  Rome,  and  when  Egypt  fell  into  her  hands  the 
old  highway  to  India  by  the  Red  Sea  was  occupied  again, 
and  immense  Roman  fleets,  in  the  time  of  Augustus,  passed 
by  the  ship  canal  from  the  ISTile  to  the  Red  Sea,  on  their 
eastern  voyages.  But  this  commerce  was  burthened  by  the 
emperors  with  excessive  duties,  and  this  tended  to  force  it 
gradually  back  upon  the  northern  routes  toward  the  Black 


36  THE  REMOTER  CAUSES  WHICH  HAVE  SHAPED 

Sea  once  more.  Even  at  this  remote  period  tlie  iron  and 
furs  of  Siberia  were  among  the  articles  of  Roman  traffic, 
the  mountains  of  the  Ural  then  yielding  their  precious 
deposits. 

The  importance  of  the  commerce  on  this  northern  route 
to  India  at  this  time,  may  be  understood  from  a  single  fact. 
A  short  time  before  the  Christian  era,  Phasiona,  on  the 
river  Phasis,  was  the  great  mart  of  eastern  trade,  and  such 
was  its  extent  that  there  were  one  hundred  and  fifty  bridges 
across  the  stream  to  accommodate  the  business  carried  on 
upon  its  shores.  For  some  time  previous  to  the  Christian 
era,  and  for  several  centuries  subsequent,  the  direct  trade 
between  China  and  the  West,  centering  upon  the  Caspian 
and  Euxine,  was  exceedingly  active  and  important,  and  few 
probably  are  aware  of  the  extent  of  the  Chinese  overland 
trade  which  Russia  at  the  present  time  enjoys,  and  which 
she  is  steadily  and  rapidly  increasing.  It  is  a  struggle,  as 
is  perceived,  between  the  ancient  highways  of  traffic,  and 
the  modern  new  routes  from  India,  which  directing  the 
wealth  of  the  Indies  upon  Western  Europe  have  built  up 
London  and  Paris,  as  the  eastern  marts  were  reared  of  old 
around  the  Mediterranean  and  Black  Sea,  and  upon  the 
banks  of  the  Wi\e. 

The  removal,  by  Constantine,  of  the  capital  of  Rome 
from  the  Tiber  to  the  Hellespont,  formed  a  new  and  most 
advantageous  center  for  commercial  interchange  between 
the  East  and  the  West,  and  Constantinople  soon  rose  to  bo 
the  foremost  city  of  the  world.  To  her  markets  crowded 
the  merchants  from  China,  India,  Arabia,  Persia  and  Europe, 
and  her  magnificence  in  consequence  was  without  a  rival. 
The  advantages  of  her  admirable  position  between  Europe 
and  Asia,  and  between  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Black 
Sea,  were  understood  and  wisely  used.  She  was,  in  all 
senses,  the  mistress  of  the  East  and  West,  with  the  single 
exception  of  the  spiritual  power  of  Rome.  Thus  for  some 
centuries  she  flourished,  and  then  the  Arabian  power  was 
interposed  between  her  and  China  and  India,  and  Bagdad 
and  other  lesser  Arab  cities  rose  on  the  fruits  of  this  inter- 


THE  NATIONAL   POLICY  OF  FRANCE   AND   ENGLAND.  37 

cepted  commerce,  and  dazzled  for  a  time  all  the  East  with 
their  splendor. 

Constantinople  suffered  in  consequence,  but  was  still, 
in  the  twelfth  century,  the  most  splendid  city  of  the  world. 
Bagdad  alone  was  worthy  to  be  in  any  degree  compared 
with  the  Queen  of  the  Hellespont. 

But  the  hatred  of  the  Roman  Church  and  the  ambition 
of  Venice  and  Genoa  to  possess  themselves  of  an  eastern 
commerce,  directed  an  army  of  the  crusaders  against  Con- 
stantinople which  they  besieged  and  plundered,  glutting  at 
once  religious  hatred  and  commercial  ambition,  and  Venice 
obtained  the  control  of  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Black 
Sea  together.  She  excluded  as  far  as  possible  Genoa  from 
any  participation  in  her  advantages,  and  monopolized  and 
fattened  upon  the  business  of  Constantinople. 

For  the  possession  of  this  commerce  long  war  was  waged 
between  Venice  and  Genoa,  but  in  the  fifteenth  century  the 
conquest  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks,  and  the  discovery 
by  the  Portuguese  of  the  new  route  to  India,  seaward,  by 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  changed  the  whole  face  of  Europe. 
Commerce  deserted  its  ancient  seats  on  and  around  the 
Mediterranean,  and  planted  the  centers  of  future  dominion 
in  western  Europe,  whose  cities  soon  became  the  depots  for 
the  eastern  trade. 

But  previous  to  this,  as  has  been  already  stated,  one 
great  commercial  and  manufacturing  city,  with  half  a  mil- 
lion of  inhabitants,  had  been  built  up  in  central  Eussia 
where  the  merchandise  of  India  and  China  was  brought  to 
be  distributed  through  Europe,  and  thus  centuries  before 
England  had  any  importance,  as  a  manufacturing  or  mari- 
time nation,  Russia  received  by  the  way  of  the  Black  Sea, 
an  enriching  portion  of  the  traffic  of  India  and  China. 

But  in  the  meantime,  Russia  was  desolated  by  a  Tartar 
conquest  and  then  by  civil  strife,  ending  in  a  stern,  unyield- 
ing despotism,  that  for  a  time  not  only  crippled  her  energies 
but  threw  her  back  toward  barbarism,  and  during  this  period 
the  Portuguese,  the  Spaniards,  the  Dutch  and  English,  by 


'38  THE   REMOTER  CAUSES   WHICH   HAVE   SHAPED 

their  maritime  enterprise  and  skill,  had  turned  into  their 
newly-opened  ocean  route,  the  trade  of  India. 

When  once  more  Russia  emerged  from  ohscurity,  in  the 
time  of  Peter  the  Great,  the  world's  great  centers  of  power 
were  altogether  changed.  Desolation  and  silence  reigned 
in  the  once  busy  marts  of  the  East,  the  old  highways  of 
commerce  were  all  deserted,  the  Mediterranean  fleets  and 
cities  had  moldered  together ;  in  all  the  East  the  Turk  ruled 
only  to  oppress,  and  exhaust,  and  ruin,  and  ocean  fleets 
were  conveying  the  riches  of  China,  India,  and  the  Eastern 
Archipelago,  to  the  rapidly  advancing  cities  of  southern  and 
western  Europe. 

At  this  point  begins  the  modern  struggle  for  the  com- 
merce of  the  East,  which  also  involves  the  control  of  the 
wealth  of  Western  Europe.  On  this  question  of  the  trade 
of  Asia,  in  connection  with  the  antagonisms  of  religions 
and  races,  the  whole  policy  of  Western  Europe  hinges, 
and  especially  has  it  shaped  each  movement  of  France 
and  England  in  regard  to  Russia  and  America. 

A  brief  review  of  these  efibrts  to  secure  the  trade  of  India 
and  the  East,  is  necessary  to  explain  the  meaning  of  the 
Anglo-French  Alliance,  the  attack  upon  Russia  in  the 
Crimean  war,  the  invasion  of  Mexico,  and  the  hostility 
which  France  and  England  have  manifested  to  our  own 
Republic. 

The  policy  and  efforts  of  Russia  should  be  first  considered, 
because  it  will  reveal  the  true  reason  why  she  was  attacked 
by  the  Western  Powers. 

At  the  time  when  Russia  was  beginning  to  recover  from 
the  effect  of  her  Tartar  invasion,  and  the  subsequent  civil 
wars,  the  Dutch,  the  French  and  the  English,  were  all 
seeking  to  establish  themselves  in  India,  and  to  obtain 
control  of  its  commerce,  and  hold  it  for  their  own  exclusive 
benefit.  In  this  condition  of  things — ^the  most  important 
and  enriching  trade  of  all  the  world  in  the  hands  of  the 
western  Powers,  w^hich  commerce  would  soon  make  them 
the  center  of  power  and  civilization,  as  it  had  already  done 
for  all  who  had  previously  enjoyed  its  advantages — Russia 


THE  NATIONAL   POLICY   OF   FRANCE   AND   ENGLAND.  39 

perceived  clearly  that  her  only  hope  of  becoming  a  great 
nation  lay  in  her  recovering  for  herself  a  portion  of  the 
Eastern  commerce,  and  that  her  only  route  to  India  and 
China  was  the  ancient  one — by  the  Black  Sea,  the  Caspian, 
and  the  Ural.  She  saw  the  necessity  of  producing  those 
commodities  which  she  might  exchange  for  the  precious 
stuffs  of  the  East,  and  therefore  created  a  manufacturing 
system  of  her  own,  for  the  double  purpose  of  stimulating 
her  own  industry,  opening  up  her  own  resources,  and  to 
obtain  within  herself  an  independent  supply  of  manufac- 
tured goods,  suitable  for  the  Eastern  markets. 

Russia,  like  England,  desired  to  share  in  the  trade  of 
northern  India  and  China.  For  her  no  path  was  open  across 
the  waves, but  the  old  highways  leading  from  the  Euxine 
eastward,  though  mostly  deserted,  might,  perhaps,  be  opened 
and  occupied  again.  But  between  her  and  her  goal  lay  the 
Tartar  and  the  Turk.  The  question  at  once  arises,  was  it 
more  criminal,  more  heartless  and  despotic  for  Russia  to 
remove  these  from  her  path,  than  for  England  to  sweep 
away  the  natives  of  Hindostan.  G-reat  Britain  was  march- 
ing northward,  conquering  and  absorbing  India  as  she  went; 
Russia  was  marching  south-eastward,  conquering,  but  also 
incorporating  what  she  subdued,  and  making  it  an  integral 
part  of  her  empire.  She  has  been  displacing  and  incorpo- 
rating Turkey,  while  England  has  been  swallowing  India, 
and  both  for  the  same  purpose,  viz  :  the  securing  that  world- 
enriching  commerce  of  the  East. 

Russia  has  thus  advanced  to  the  Crimea,  southward  to 
the  Danube,  northward  round  the  Black  Sea,  and  eastward 
still  to  the  Caspian,  embracing  that  also  in  her  acquisitions, 
and  now,  and  thus,  she  has  enclosed  Constantinople  in  a 
semi -circular  line  of  her  possessions,  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Danube,  northward  and  eastward,  round  to  near  the 
neighborhood  of  Ezeroum  and  Trebizond.  In  addition  to 
this,  such  is  her  influence  with  the  court  of  Persia,  that  her 
route  lies  open  eastward.  In  all  this,  Russia  has  invaded 
no  right  of  England,  has  touched  neither  her  territory  nor 
her  property.     She  has  been  endeavoring  to  open  for  herself 


40  THE   REMOTER  CAUSES   WHICH   HAVE   SHAPED 

a  land  route  eastward,  while  England  held  the  sea  and  was 
conquering  and  overrunning  India  for  her  own  exclusive 
advantage. 

Tried  by  the  rules  of  Christian  morality,  the  course  of 
Russia  can  not  be  defended ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  when 
compared  with  the  policy  of  any  one  of  the  great  nations 
of  Europe,  she  will  scarcely  suffer  in  the  comparison.  She 
stands  before  the  world  as  one  among  those  powers,  swayed 
by  the  same  ambition,  and  using  against  others  the  same 
means  and  the  same  arts  which  were  directed  against  her- 
self, and  which  every  strong  one  was  using  like  herself  for 
the  subjugation  of  the  weak.  Not  to  defend  or  justify  the 
acts  of  the  E-ussian  court,  have  these  remarks  been  made, 
but  to  expose  the  hypocrisy  of  those  who,  deeply  stained 
as  Russia  with  the  sin  of  ambition,  and  selfish  and  wanton 
aggression,  wiped  their  mouths  with  an  affectation  of  inno- 
oency,  and  cried  out  against  the  Czar  as  if  he  were  the  only 
disturber  of  the  repose  of  Europe — and  where  this  was  done 
merely  as  a  cover  for  their  own  ultimate  designs.  Let  Eng- 
land compare  her  own  march  from  the  trading-post  of  Clive, 
northward  over  the  subjugated  provinces  of  India,  with  that 
of  Russia  from  Moscow  to  the  Caspian,  and  she  will  find 
little  cause  for  self-congratulation.  She  has  established  a 
rule  there  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  a  down- 
trodden people,  the  rule  of  strong  and  exacting  masters 
over  comparatively  weak  and  defenseless  races,  that  will  be 
crushed  out  and  displaced,  not  elevated  to  the  position  of 
free  and  civilized  communities,  who  will  neither  share  the 
glory  nor  the  prosperity  of  the  nation  by  which  they  have 
been  subdued.  India  is  a  vast  plantation  owned  by  England, 
and  worked  exclusively  for  the  benefit  of  the  dominant  race. 

But  to  return  to  a  consideration  of  the  commerce  of  the 
East.  Russia  aims  at  the  trade  of  the  East  Indian  Archi- 
pelago, China,  ll^orthern  India,  Persia,  and  the  countries 
around  the  Hellespont,  the  Euxine  and  the  Caspian.  To 
place  herself  in  communication  with  the  wealth  of  the  East 
Indian  Islands  she  has  stretched  her  dominions  to  the  Pacific, 
and  along  its  shore,  till  she  now  embraces  the  mouth  and 


THE  NATIONAL  POLICY  OF  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND.  41 

the  valley  of  the  Amoor,  including  a  large  and  fertile  prov- 
ince obtained  from  China.  This  river  opens  up  a  commercial 
highway,  as  has  been  stated,  far  westward  through  northern 
China  into  Siberia,  toward  the  Ural,  whence  a  railway  is 
practicable  into  Europe,  toward  Moscow  and  Odessa.  Elvers 
and  canals  already  connect  all  parts  of  the  Empire  with  the 
Euxine  and  the  Caspian,  and  then  a  great  northern  route 
stretches  out  before  her,  by  the  way  of  the  Sea  of  Aral, 
toward  Herat  and  Northern  India.  Already  this  trade  has 
been  nourished  into  great  importance.  This  will  appear  by 
the  following  statement  copied  from  Merchants'  Magazine, 
in  an  article  whose  authority  can  scarcely  be  questioned : 

"The  Russian  caravans  carry  the  furs  of  foxes,  beavers, 
castors,  of  Kamkschatka  and  of  America,  coral,  clocks, 
linens,  woolen  cloths,  wool,  leather,  looking-glasses,  glass, 
etc.,  and  give  them  to  the  Chinese  in  exchange  for  silk, 
precious  stones,  tea,  cotton,  rice,  porcelain,  rhubarb,  gauze- 
crape,  mourning-crape,  musk,  anniseed,  silks  with  threads 
of  gold,  velvets,  tobacco,  sugar  candy,  preserved  ginger, 
pipes,  combs,  dolls  made  of  silk  and  of  porcelain. 

"In  the  time  of  Catherine,  this  business  was  valued  at 
20,000,000  of  francs,  equally  divided  between  the  E-ussians 
and  Chinese.  The  business  has  constantly  progressed  ever 
since,  and  in  1850  the  Russians  exported  to  China  28,000,000 
francs  worth  of  merchandise.  The  caravans  of  Kiatka  have 
not  alone  the  privilege  of  the  commerce  between  China 
and  Russia;  the  independent  Tartars  carry  to  Oremberg 
and  Troizkai  the  provisions  which  they  purchase  in  India 
and  China.  A  part  of  this  merchandise,  and  of  that  brought 
by  other  caravans  from  Thibet,  from  India,  from  Khiva,  from 
[Bokhara,  from  all  central  Asia,  from  Persia,  from  Georgia 
from  Armenia,  arrive  at  the  great  fair  at  Mjnei -Novgorod, 
at  the  confluence  of  the  Volga  and  the  Olka,  where,  it  is 
said,  600,000  merchants  assemble.  To  give  an  idea  of  the 
importance  of  the  commerce  of  Russia  with  the  different 
countries  of  Asia,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  she  imports  by 
the  Caspian  8,000,000  francs'   worth  of  merchandise,  to 


42  THE   REMOTER   CAUSES   WHICH   HAVE    SHAPED 

which  must  be  added  about  10,000,000,  to  represent  the 
productions  which  she  receives  by  land  from  the  Turkish 
and  Persian  provinces.  She  buys  116,000,000  francs'  worth 
of  Chinese  productions,  and  brings  from  Bokhara  and  Tar- 
tary  76,000,000.  Her  exports  by  land  to  Asia  amount  to 
170,000,000  of  francs. 

"  It  would  be  easy  for  Russia  to  bring  all  this  commerce 
to  the  Black  Sea,  without  doing  any  prejudice  to  her  pro- 
vinces in  the  north  of  Europe.  She  is  doing  everything  for 
the  accomplishment  of  this  result,  and  nature  has  traced 
the  route  by  which  this  immense  commerce  would  easily 
flow  into  the  Euxine.  The  most  considerable  rivers  in 
Eussia — the  Dnieper,  the  Dniester,  and  the  Don — empty 
into  this  sea;  and  with  them,  all  the  agricultural  and 
manufacturing  riches  of  Russia  would  descend  into  the 
Euxine,  attracted  there  by  the  merchant  vessels  of  the 
maritime  nations  of  southern  Europe,  of  western  Asia,  and 
of  the  north  of  Africa.  In  order  to  prevent  any  obstacle  to 
this  powerful  current  of  commerce,  which  would  bring  to 
the  south  the  productions  of  the  north-east  of  Europe,  the 
rivers  just  mentioned  were  connected  with  the  Baltic  and 
the  White  Sea  by  means  of  a  vast  system  of  canalization, 
conceived  and  commenced  by  the  genius  of  Peter  the  Great. 

"  The  Danube  alone  could  bring  into  the  Russian  ports 
of  the  Black  Sea  the  commerce  of  a  large  part  of  western 
Europe;  for  the  Danube,  united  to  the  Rhine  by  the  canal 
Louis,  which  puts  it  in  direct  communication  with  France, 
Belgium,  and  Holland,  offers  to  commerce  the  most  direct 
line  of  communication  between  Europe  and  Asia.  The 
Caspian  is  connected  with  the  ^Northern  Sea  by  means  of 
an  immensely  important  canal,  which  joins  the  Volga  to 
the  Meta,  a  tributary  of  the  Yolchov,  which  falls  into  the 
Lake  of  Ladoga.  This  lake  communicates  with  the  Baltic 
(Gulf  of  Finland) ;  the  Volga  itself  is  connected  with  the 
Lake  of  Ladoga  by  the  canal  of  Tchkvin;  and  the  canals 
of  Koubensk,  and  of  the  north,  unite  the  Caspian  with  the 
White  Sea. 

"However  great  the  importance   of  this  net- work  of 


THE   NATIONAL   POLICY   OF   FRANCE   AND   ENGLAND.  43 

canals  in  Eussia  in  Europe,  still  they  do  not  suffice  to  carry 
out  but  a  part  of  the  commercial  projects  of  Peter  the 
Great.  It  was  still  necessary  to  bring  eastern  Asia  and 
the  Black  Sea  into  communication  with  the  Caspian  Sea. 
Peter,  as  we  have  already  seen,  had  traced  on  a  map  the 
plan  of  a  canal  between  these  two  seas ;  this  was  no  more 
than  the  renewal  of  the  project  of  Seleucus,  of  which  we 
have  spoken  in  its  place.  At  a  later  period  he  decided  to 
join  these  seas  by  means  of  a  canal  between  the  Clavlia,  a 
tributary  of  the  Don,  and  the  Kamychenka,  a  tributary  of 
the  Volga — an  enterprise  which  had  been  attempted  by  the 
Yenitians  and  the  Tartars  of  the  Crimea. 

"  There  were  great  difficulties  to  overcome  before  com- 
pleting this  canal,  for  the  Don  is  higher  than  the  Volga. 
But  Peter  undertook  to  overcome  them,  and  employed  an 
English  engineer  named  Perry,  who,  after  three  years  labor, 
was  obliged  to  abandon  it  to  complete  fortifications  of 
immediate  necessity.  Catherine  II.  caused  the  enterprise 
to  be  carried  on  for  two  years ;  but  the  ravine  of  Peter  the 
Great,  as  it  is  called,  is  still  unfinished. 

"  ]^ow,  it  is  probable  a  railroad  will  take  the  place  of  a 
canal.  The  Black  Sea  has  already  become  almost  a  Russian 
lake.  The  Caspian  belongs  to  the  Czar,  for  Persia  has  lost 
the  right  to  keep  an  armed  force  there,  and  her  communi- 
cation with  the  Black  Sea  becomes  at  once  of  the  greatest 
importance  to  Russia.  Besides,  the  Caspian  receives  the 
Volga,  that  immense  stream  which  traverses  all  southern 
and  eastern  Russia,  which,  by  the  aid  of  the  Kama — one 
of  its  tributaries — is  connected  with  the  Ural  Mountains, 
so  rich  in  mines  of  gold,  platina,  iron  and  copper ;  also  the 
rich  productions  of  all  eastern  and  central  Asia,  of  Persia, 
of  Armenia,  and  the  neighboring  countries,  flow  into  the 
Caspian  by  different  routes.  I^ow,  to  carry  out  the  com- 
mercial views  of  Russia,  it  remains  to  put  the  Caspian  in 
direct  communication  with  all  central  Asia,  as  far  as 
India  and  China.  Il^Tature  had  primitively  established  this 
immense  line  of  communication,  by  making  but  one  great 
internal  sea  of  the  Aral  and  Caspian.    Ever  since  the  epoch 


44  THE  REMOTER  CAUSES   WHICH   HAVE   SHAPED 

of  the  separation  of  these  two  seas  by  the  vast  steppes  of 
Manquischlaks,  a  communication  still  existed,  if  it  is  true 
that  as  late  as  the  tenth  or  eleventh  century  of  our  era  the 
ancient  Oxus  (Amou  Daria)  emptied  into  the  Caspian, 
placing  her  in  a  direct  communication  with  the  south-west 
frontiers  of  China  and  the  north  of  India ;  but  in  the  present 
day  this  river  empties  into  the  Aral,  but  still  could,  by  its 
numerous  tributaries  and  by  caravans,  easily  bring  the  pro- 
ductions of  Chinese  Tartary,  of  Thibet,  of  Cashmere,  and 
of  India,  by  Kliiva,  to  the  Aral,  which  receives  the  Scria 
Daria  (Jaxade),  which  is  the  route  of  an  active  commerce, 
and  the  best  communication  with  the  table-lands  of  China, 
Turkistan,  southern  Russia,  and  the  Black  Sea. 

"  From  the  preceding,  it  is  easy  to  understand  the  efforts 
made  by  Russia  to  get  possession  of  Khiva,  which  is  at  the 
head  of  the  Amou  Scria  (Oxus).  Once  mistress  of  this  place, 
Bokhara  would  soon  see  her  at  her  gates,  and  Khokanee, 
which  is  near,  would  become  her  prey.  Then  she  would 
at  pleasure  direct  the  caravans  of  China,  of  Thibet,  and  of 
India.  After  that,  it  would  be  easy  to  create  a  communi- 
cation between  the  Caspian  and  the  Aral,  and  the  Black  Sea 
would  be  connected  with  the  extreme  East.  Independently 
of  the  facilities  of  communication  by  water,  just  mentioned, 
a  prodigious  quantity  of  merchandise  would  come  by  cara- 
vans from  the  East  to  the  Black  Sea. 

"  In  two  hundred  days,  the  caravans  can  make  the  jour- 
ney from  Chin-Si,  on  the  western  frontiers  of  China,  to  the 
eastern  shores  of  the  Caspian.  From  there  the  numerous 
Bteamers  can  easily  transport  the  merchandise  to  Astrakan. 
A  large  part  of  the  commerce  of  western  Persia,  of  Arme- 
nia, of  Mesopotamia,  and  other  countries  bordering  on  the 
Tigris  and  the  Euphrates,  on  the  north-east  of  Asia  Minor, 
goes  to  the  Black  Sea,  and  Trebizond  is  its  principal  depot. 
Now,  Trebizond  is  within  a  few  leagues  of  the  Muscovite 
frontiers.  Russia  is  preparing  to  extend  herself  on  the 
South.  She  already  covets  Kurdistan  and  Armenia,  and 
would  like  the  possession  of  the  Tigris  and  the  Euphrates, 
BO  important  to  her  commercial  interests;   and  in  1829, 


THE  NATIONAL   POLICY   OF  FRANCE   AND   ENGLAND.  45 

during  tlie  war  against  the  Turks,  General  Paskiewitch, 
who  was  at  Ezeroum,  had  the  intention  for  a  moment  of 
taking  possession  of  Bagdad,  rendered  an  important  city 
by  its  commerce  with  Egypt,  Arabia,  India,  Turkistan,  and 
Persia,  and  depot  of  the  merchandise  from  the  East  which 
is  directed  to  Syria,  Asia  Minor,  Trebizond,  and  Constan- 
tinople. 

"Russia,  in  order  to  firmly  establish  her  commercial 
power,  tries,  like  an  immense  polypus,  to  stretch  her  thou- 
sand arms  over  the  Eastern  world.  At  the  same  time,  she 
attempts  to  naturalize  in  her  provinces  all  the  industrial 
arts  of  the  "West,  and  has  made  a  real  progress,  which  is 
easy  to  be  proved,  and  of  which  Europe  makes  too  little 
account.  The  Czars,  in  their  haughty  pride,  do  not  wish 
to  be  obliged  to  have  to  ask  anything"  from  the  rest  of  the 
world,  and  profiting  by  the  different  climates  united  in  their 
vast  empire,  endeavor  to  cultivate  the  productions  of  every 
clime.  They  have  no  colonies  for  the  production  of  sugar ; 
but  the  provinces  of  Oral  and  of  Sacalof  are  covered  with 
immense  plantations  of  beets,  from  which  sugar  is  manu- 
factured. Their  southern  provinces  furnish  wheat  for  part 
of  the  west ;  in  1850  the  exportation  was  enormous.  The 
northern  provinces  produce  prodigious  quantities  of  fiax  and 
of  hemp.  Cotton  is  cultivated  in  Georgia,  and  the  country 
taken  from  Persia;  since  1845  indigo  has  been  introduced 
into  the  Caucasian  provinces  ;  merino  sheep,  by  hundreds 
of  thousands,  are  all  around  Moscow,  towards  the  Baltic, 
and  on  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea — ^they  prosper  every 
where,  and  produce  abundantly.  Silk  is  produced  in  the 
southern  provinces,  and  in  1833  the  Emperer  ]N'ichola3 
caused  4,000,000  of  shoots  of  the  mulberry  tree  to  be  planted. 
The  gold  mines  of  Asiatic  Eussia  are  very  productive,  and 
furnish  annually  100,000,000  of  francs  to  the  treasury. 
Finally,  the  Czars  wished  to  have  their  wine  independently 
of  France,  and  the  Crimea  is  covered  with  vineyards." 

From  what  has  now  been  presented,  the  grand  commer- 
cial idea  of  Russia  will  clearly  appear.     It  is   certainly 


r. 


46  THE   NATIONAL   POLICY   OF   FRANCE   AND   ENGLAND. 

second  to  no  conception  of  modern  times,  and  it  ill  becomes 
other  nations  to  accuse  her  of  ignorance  and  barbarism, 
when  she  is  working  out  before  the  world  so  vast  a  problem 
as  the  restoration  of  the  commerce  of  the  East,  in  part  at 
least,  to  its  old  highways,  that  commerce  which  filled  once 
all  the  space  between  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Indies 
with  populous  cities,  and  whose  ebbing  tide  left  these  seats 
of  old  dominion  to  waste  and  desolation. 

There  is  one  feature  of  the  operations  of  Eussia  which 
seems  to  indicate  a  design  to  render  her  commercial  scheme 
independent  of  the  possession  of  Constantinople.  While 
the  Allies  were  arrested  at  Sebastopol,  she  was  exceedingly- 
active  in  Asia,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Trebizond  and  the 
south-eastern  extremity  of  the  Black  Sea.  She  evidently 
intends  to  possess  herself  of  permanent  stations  there. 
"With  a  seaport  at  that  point,  and  communication  with  the 
Euphrates  and  the  Persian  Gulf,  she  would  possess  a  com- 
mercial line  to  India  and  the  East,  which  would  be  entirely 
independent  of  Constantinople  and  the  Mediterranean. 

These  statements  present  a  view  of  the  policy  and  com- 
mercial views  of  Russia  up  to  the  time  of  the  Crimean 
war.  As  will  be  more  fully  explained  hereafter,  she  was 
endeavoring,  in  a  perfectly  legitimate  manner,  to  develop 
her  own  great  resources  by  cherishing  her  manufactures, 
and  to  secure  for  herself  an  independent  channel  for  her 
trade  with  India.  If  now  we  turn  to  the  policy  and  acts  of 
France  and  England,  we  shall  understand  why  Russia  was 
attacked,  and  why  America  is  menaced. 

Russia  was  attacked  because  France  and  England  feared 
her  growing  power,  and  for  no  other  reason  whatever. 
They  feared  that  she  would  soon  become  a  great  commercial 
power  by  the  overthrow  of  Turkey,  and  a  manufacturing 
nation  by  the  development  of  her  immense  resources,  and 
therefore  they  wanted  to  cripple  or  destroy  her — and  the 
very  same  reasons  have  caused  their  hostility  to  us. 

Let  not  Americans  forget  that  these  reasons  remain  in 
full  force,  whatever  the  present  aspect  of  these  powers 
may  be. 


England's  domestic  and  foreign  policy.  47 


CHAPTER    V. 


ENGLAND'S  DOMESTIC  AND  FOEEIGN  POLICY. 

"I  would  not  suffer  even  a  nail  for  a  horse- shoe  to  be 
manufactured  in  America." — (Declaration  of  the  elder  Pitt). 

"  Nicholson,  the  royal  governor  of  Virginia,  calmly  advised 
that  parliament  should  forbid  the  Virginians  to  make  their 
own  clothing."  Spotswood  repeats  the  complaint :  "  The 
people,  more  of  necessity  than  inclination,  attempt  to  clothe 
themselves  with  their  own  manufactures ;  adding,  it  is 
certainly  necessary  to  divert  their  application  to  some 
commodity  less  prejudical  to  the  trade  of  Great  Britain. — 
(Bancroft,  vol.  iii.,  107). 

In  the  same  connection,  Bancroft  also  cites  the  following 
act  of  Parliament :  "After  the  first  day  of  December,  1699, 
"  no  wool  or  manufacture  made,  or  mixed  with  wool,  being 
"  the  produce  or  manufacture  of  any  of  the  English  planta- 
"  tions  in  America,  shall  be  loaden  in  any  ship  or  vessel, 
"upon  any  pretense  whatsoever — nor  loaden  upon  any 
"horse,  cart,  or  other  carriage,  to  be  carried  out  of  the 
"  English  plantations  to  any  other  of  the  said  plantations, 
"  or  to  any  other  place  whatsoever."  Thus,  says  Bancroft, 
the  fabrics  of  Connecticut  might  not  seek  a  market  in 
Massachusetts,  or  be  carried  to  Albany  to  traffic  with  the 
Indians.  An  English  mariner  might  not  purchase  in  Boston 
woolens  of  a  greater  value  than  fifty  shillings,  lest  a  larger 
amount  should  injure  the  manufactures  of  England  at  home. 

Another  Colonial  measure  is  thus  stated  by  Bancroft,  vol. 
iii.,  103-4 :  "  To  make  most  of  the  money  centre  of  England, 


48  England's  domestic  and  foreign  policy. 

"  the  Lords  of  trade  proposed  a  regulation  of  the  colonial 
"currency,  by  reducing  all  the  coin  of  America  to  one 
"  standard.  The  Proclamation  of  Queen  Anne  was  not 
"  designed  to  preserve  among  th^  colonies  the  English  basis ; 
"  on  the  contrary,  it  confirmed  to  all  the  colonies  a  depre- 
"  ciated  currency,  but  to  make  the  depreciation  uniform  and 
"safe  against  change;  and  England  therefore,"  he  says, 
"  monopolized  all  the  gold  and  silver/' 

To  these  statements  may  be  added  what  the  English  his- 
torian Russel  (vol.  ii.,  181,)  says  in  regard  to  the  character 
and  design  of  the  "  famous  navigation  act,  which  prohibited 
"foreign  ships,  unless  under  some  particular  exceptions, 
"  from  entering  the  harbors  of  the  English  (American)  colo- 
"  nies,  and  obliged  their  principal  produce  to  be  exported 
"  directly  to  countries  under  the  dominion  of  England. 

"  Before  this  regulation,  which  was  with  difiiculty  sub- 
"  mitted  to  by  some  of  the  colonies,  and  always  evaded  by 
"  the  fanatical  and  factious  inhabitants  of  New  England,  the 
"  colonists  used  to  send  their  produce  whithersoever  they. 
"  thought  it  would  be  disposed  of  to  most  advantage,  and 
"  indiscriminately  admitted  into  their  harbors  ships  of  all 
"  nations.  *  *  *  The  navigation  act  remedied  this  evil ; 
"and  the  English  parliament,  though  aware  of  the  incon- 
"  venience  of  such  a  regulation  to  the  colonies,  were  not 
"  alarmed  at  the  probable  results." 

To  all  these  settlements,  England  thenceforth  exported 
without  a  rival  her  various  manufactures. 

These  quotations  set  forth  with  perfect  accuracy  the  spirit 
and  policy  which  have  governed  England  for  more  than 
two  hundred  years.  Her  scheme  is  very  simple  in  its  ele- 
ments, and  its  main  points  are  perfectly  obvious.  They 
are  first  to  manufacture,  as  far  as  possible,  for  the  rest  of 
the  world;  second,  to  confine  the  commerce  of  the  world, 
as  much  as  in  her  lies,  to  her  own  ships ;  and  third,  as  the 
consequence  of  these,  to  draw  to  herself  the  gold  and  silver 
of  the  nations,  and  make  herself  the  Banker  and  Capitalist 
for  all  nations. 

To  accomplish  these  ends,  Great  Britain  has  steadily 


England's  domestic  and  foreign  policy.  49 

employed  all  lier  sagacity  and  all  her  power,  and  in  the 
pursuit  of  her  purpose,  she  has  been  just  as  selfish  and 
unscrupulous  in  all  her  course  as  she  was  in  her  treatment 
of  her  American  colonies. 

Were  she  able  to  prevent  it,  she,  in  the  spirit  of  Pitt, 
would  not  permit  any  nation  of  earth  to  manufacture  a 
horse-shoe  nail  for  themselves,  or  own  a  single  ship. 

She  has  hesitated  at  nothing  that  promised  her  success. 
If,  in  order  to  increase  her  manufactures,  her  commerce, 
and  her  wealth,  it  was  necessary  to  oppress  her  colonies, 
and  cripple  their  industry,  it  was  done.  If  she  needed  a 
country  like  India,  she  seized  it,  annihilated  its  domestic 
manufactures,  and  reduced  its  millions  to  mere  serfs,  labor- 
ing for  her  mills,  and  to  employ  her  ships.  If  China  would 
not  buy  her  opium,  she  battered  down  her  towns,  and 
slaughtered  her  inhabitants,  and  then  forced  China  to  pay 
the  expenses  of  the  robbery. 

When  Russia  is  making  such  rapid  advances  in  manufac- 
tures and  commerce,  as  to  threaten  her  with  rivalry,  she 
smothers  the  enmity  of  centuries,  and  unites  with  France 
to  attack  and  cripple  her,  and  then  on  the  first  opportunity, 
joins  with  France  and  the  Rebels  in  an  attempt  to  destroy 
this  manufacturing  and  commercial  Republic,  and  she  ha» 
done  this  in  the  same  spirit  and  with  the  same  end  in  view,, 
as  when  she  crushed,  so  far  as  she  could,  the  manufactures 
and  the  commerce  of  the  infant  colonies.  The  spirit  that 
protested  against  the  Virginians  manufacturing  their  own 
clothes,  is  the  same  which  now  cries  out  against  a  tariff' 
which  cherishes  our  home  industry,  and  declares  the  Morrill 
tariff  a  proper  cause  of  war,  and  the  policy  which  forbade 
the  colonists  to  ship  on  any  but  English  bottoms,  is  the 
same  that  now  furnishes  privateers  to  the  Rebels,  which 
by  rendering  our  commerce  unsafe,  transfers  to  British  ships- 
our  own  proper  carrying  trade. 

England  desires  to  see  the  nation  divided,  both  in  order 

that  a  rival  may  be  crushed,  and  because  she  hopes  that 

thus  the  South  would  be  virtually  an  agricultural'  colony, 

to  supply  her  looms  with  material,  and  furnish  a  market  for 

4 


60 


her  fabrics,  while  France  covets  Mexico,  Texas,  and  Cali- 
fornia, for  similar  reasons,  but  at  the  same  time  religious 
ambition  is  largely  shaping  her  policy.  We  may  judge 
whether  they  will  be  moved  from  these  purposes  by  pleasant 
words. 

Having  thus  given  the  key-note  to  the  policy,  both  of 
England  and  France,  it  is  necessary  to  look  at  their  course 
somewhat  in  detail,  in  order  to  understand  fully  their  present 
attitude  and  aims. 


JiNGLAND   AND  THE   EASTERN  QtrESIION.  61 


CHAPTER   VI 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  EASTERN  QUESTION. 

The  present  state  of  Europe,  with  its  alliances  and  antago- 
nisms, the  union  of  France  and  England,  and  their  hostility 
to  Russia  and  America,  is  the  result  of  commercial  causes 
which  have  been  in  operation  for  at  least  two  hundred  years, 
while  the  religious  influences  that  are  shaping  the  present 
and  the  future,  reacji  much  farther  into  the  past. 

And  even  should  France  and  England  separate,  the  com- 
binations of  the  future  will  be  governed  by  the  same  general 
causes  which  have  produced  the  present,  unless  one  of  those 
great  revolutions  should  occur,  which  close  up  eras  in  the 
world's  history,  and  form  a  new  starting  point  for  the 
nations. 

•  In  the  sixteenth  century,  for  the  first  time,  the  commer- 
cial interest  in  European  politics  became  prominent.  In 
the  language  of  Bancroft,  "it  formed  alliances,  regulated 
"wars,  dictated  treaties,  and  established  barriers  against 
"  conquests.  ]!^ow,  for  the  first  time,  great  maritime  powers 
"struggled  for  dominion  on  the  high  seas.  The  world 
"  entered  on  a  new  epoch." 

When  the  discovery  of  the  ocean  route  to  India  by  the 
"  stormy  Cape  "  had  turned  the  Eastern  trade  away  from  its 
ancient  marts  in  western  Asia,  and  even  from  the  Italian 
cities,  and  was  directing  it  upon  western  Europe,  Portugal, 
first  of  all,  by  the  daring,  enterprise,  and  skill  of  her  mari- 
ners, became  the  center  of  this  enriching  trafiic ;  and  Lisbon 
for  a  time  was  the  great  commercial  mart  of  Europe.     She 


52         ENGLAND  AND  THE  EASTERN  QUESTION. 

was  soon,  however,  compelled  to  share  this  commerce  with 
the  Dutch,  who  wrested  from  her  an  important  portion  of 
her  East  Indian  possessions.  They  rapidly  amassed  immense 
wealth  by  this  enriching  trade,  and  Amsterdam  and  Ant- 
werp became  the  "  great  heart  of  commercial  circulation." 

The  commercial  prosperity  of  the  Dutch,  however,  received 
a  severe  check  by  that  navigation  act  by  which  England 
compelled  her  colonies  to  buy  from,  and  sell  to,  her  alone, 
an  act  by  which  she  not  only  injured  her  Dutch  rival,  but 
hoped  to  prevent  the  rise  of  any  commercial  or  manufac- 
turing power  in  America.  The  power  of  G-reat  Britain 
increased  exactly  in  proportion  as  she  extended  her  com- 
merce and  manufactures,  compelling  her  colonies,  and  all 
else  whom  she  could  control,  to  sell  to  her  their  raw  material, 
to  be  transported  in  her  ships,  manufactured  in  her  mills, 
and  then  resold  it  to  those  by  whom  it  was  produced,  and 
who  were  forbidden  to  make  from  it  even  their  own  clothing. 

The  decline  first  of  the  commerce  of  Portugal,  and  then 
of  the  maritime  power  of  the  Dutch,  and  at  length  the  fall 
of  the  Spanish  Monarchy,  left  England  with  only  one 
formidable  rival.  France  alone  had  power  to  confront  and 
threaten  her,  and  thenceforth  for  about  a  hundred  years, 
these  two  great  powers  were  contending  directly  for  the 
control  of  the  commerce  and  manufactures,  and  consequently 
for  the  wealth  and  the  power  of  the  world.  It  will  be  inter- 
esting for  Americans  to  study  the  reasons  which  suddenly 
ended  their  conflict,  and  united  them,  first  against  Hussia, 
and  now  against  America. 

About  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  we  find 
Great  Britain  actively  engaged  in  carrying  out  her  colonial 
and  commercial  policy,  alike  in  the  East  and  the  West. 
From  her  American  possessions,  both  insular  and  conti- 
nental, she  had  excluded  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  with 
little  regard  for  the  rights  or  interests  of  the  colonists,  sub- 
jected them  all  to  a  commercial  system,  which  repressed 
their  industry,  and  drained  them  of  their  wealth,  in  order 
that  her  own  merchants  and  manufacturers  might  be 
enriched,  and  that  England  might  be  made  the  money 


ENGLAND   AND   THE   EASTERN   QUESTION.  53 

centre  of  tlie  world.  Had  she  proposed  to  accomplisli  this 
by  a  fair  development  of  her  own  resources,  there  would 
have  been  no  cause  for  complaint.  Had  she  become  more 
wealthy  and  more  powerful  than  others  by  her  superior 
skill,  energy  or  industry,  she  would  have  been  worthy  only 
of  admiration  and  praise.  But  when  she  said  to  the  mil- 
lions of  her  colonial  subjects,  you  shall  make  no  use  of  the 
resources  of  your  country,  except  such  as  our  home  interests 
demand ;  you  shall  manufacture  nothing,  but  buy  all  from 
the  English  mills  and  shops ;  and  you  shall  build  you  no 
ships,  but  your  trade  shall  all  be  in  our  hands  at  home ; 
she  was  simply  a  selfish  oppressor,  enslaving  to  the  extent 
of  her  power,  the  industry  of  the  world. 

The  colonial  system  of  England,  like  that  of  all  Western 
Europe  at  the  time,  was  only  an  application  on  a  large  scale 
of  the  principles  of  monarchical  and  aristocratic  govern- 
ments, to  such  communities  abroad  as  she  could  control. 
As  the  noble  and  wealthy  landholders  considered  it  quite 
right  to  use  the  laborers  merely  to  increase  their  own  wealth 
and  luxuries,  so  each  home  government,  esteeming  itself  to 
be  the  lord  proprietor  of  all  colonial  territory,  scrupled  not 
to  use  the  land,  its  resources,  and  its  inhabitants,  in  any 
manner  by  which  it  might  be  most  speedily  enriched. 

It  was  the  serf  or  slaveholding  principle  applied  to  nations 
so  far  as  was  possible,  and  England  grew  haughty  with  the 
increase  of  her  power,  nursed  her  ambition  a^nd  her  pride 
until  she  thought  to  become  the  great  slaveholder  of  the 
nations;  she  aimed  to  hold  in  subjection  the  territory,  the 
resources,  the  labor  of  the  world. 

When  her  colonists  were  spirited  and  intelligent,  like 
those  of  America,  she  hedged  them  round,  and  fettered 
them  with  oppressive  enactments;  and  where  they  were 
weak  and  ignorant,  she  reduced  them,  as  in  India,  very 
nearly  to  the  condition  of  serfs  upon  the  soil,  laboring  to 
supply  cargoes  for  her  ships,  and  material  for  her  mills. 

So  far  as  lay  in  her  power,  she  made  of  the  earth  one  vast 
plantation,  owned  in  England,  and  worked  for  the  benefit 
of  British  capital.     It  is  not  surprising  that^  with  such  a 


54         ENGLAND  AND  THE  EASTERN  QUESTION. 

♦ 

spirit  and  aims,  the  English  aristocracy  should  sympathize 
with  our  slaveholding  rebels. 

The  present  position  and  policy  of  France  and  England, 
and  the  motives  in  which  their  alliance  originated,  will  be 
better  understood,  if  we  consider  the  nature  of  the  conflict 
which  these  two  powers  waged  with  each  other  for  a  hun- 
dred years  previous  to  their  new-born  friendship. 

It  was  a  contest  for  the  dominion  of  the  world,  and  as 
commerce,  and  particularly  the  trade  of  the  East,  was  the 
chief  source  of  wealth  and  power,  it  was  a  struggle  for  com- 
mercial supremacy,  both  in  India  and  America.  It  will 
appear  that  the  war  which  France  and  England  carried  on 
with  each  other  from  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century  to  the  fall  of  the  first  ISTapoleon,  sprung  from  the 
same  general  cause  that  originated  the  alliance  itself.  Many 
other  causes,  doubtless,  contributed  to  produce  the  European 
wars  of  the  last  hundred  years — still  the  great  question 
which  convulsed  Europe  was,  whether  England  or  France 
should  be  the  great  naval  and  commercial  power  of  the 
world — and  when  they  found  that  the  power  of  both  might 
be  endangered  by  the  rapid  progress  of  Hussia  and  the 
United  States,  they  united  in  the  unexpected  alliance,  in 
order  to  cripple  these  two  rivals,  declaring  from  the  first, 
that  this  alliance  reached  in  design  beyond  the  settlement 
of  the  Eastern  Question,  that  it  had  also  a  reference  to  the 
afiairs  of  the  West. 

"  France  and  England  united,  will  be  strong  enough  to 
control  the  world,"  this  was  the  central  idea  of  the  alliance. 
They  fought  each  other  in  order  that  the  victor  might 
govern  the  nations — and  when  it  was  found  that  neither 
could  do  this  separately,  they  agreed  to  attempt  it  together. 
During  the  conflict,  and  in  the  alliance,  however,  their 
motives  have  not  in  all  respects  been  the  same.  While 
England  has  been  controlled  mainly  by  commercial  con- 
siderations, by  the  wish  to  be  the  money  centre  of  the  world, 
France  has  aimed  not  only  at  this,  but  she  has  been  swayed 
also  by  a  religious  idea,  and  by  the  affinities  of  the  Latin 
race. 


BNGIiAND  AND  THE  EASTERN  QUESTION.  55 

She  has  sought  to  strengthen  or  establish  the  Papacy 
wherever  her  power  could  reach.  To  govern  Europe  as  the 
head  of  the  Latin  races  and  the  Papal  Church,  is  an  idea 
never  lost  sight  of  by  the  French  Priesthood  or  the  French 
Rulers,  and  to  secure  this  ecclesiastical  and  political  power, 
she,  like  England,  has  striven  for  a  hundred  years  to  con^ 
trol  the  commerce  both  of  the  East  and  the  West. 

Because  of  these  different  motives,  which  have  guided  the 
course  of  these  two  powers,  it  will  be  necessary  to  observe 
them  separately,  although  they  were  engaged  in  the  same 
field,  and  in  conflict  with  each  other. 

As  the  great  colonial  enterprise  of  England  has  been  the 
seizure  and  occupation  of  India,  and  because  her  deep  interest 
in  the  Eastern  Question  had  no  reference  to  the  welfare  of 
Turkey,  but  sprung  from  her  anxiety  for  her  Eastern  pos- 
sessions, we  may  look  to  her  operations  on  that  vast  field 
for  an  illustration  of  that  spirit  which  so  eagerly  desires  the 
destruction  of  this  Republic,  in  order  that  America  may  be 
reduced  again  to  colonial  weakness  and  dependence,  and 
which  is  quite  willing  that  France  should  imitate  in  Mexico 
her  own  East  Indian  example. 

In  no  other  quarter  of  the  globe  has  Great  Britain  had  an 
opportunity  of  exhibiting  her  real  character  on  a  large  scale 
as  she  has  done  in  India.  In  dealing  with  her  American 
colonies,  she  was  restrained  by  intelligence  and  power,  on 
the  part  of  those  whom  she  attempted  to  tread  down ;  but 
the  feeble  Hindoo  could  offer  no  effectual  resistance,  and  on 
that  vast  field  where  there  was  no  let  nor  hindrance,  we 
have  a  right  to  infer  that  the  real  national  spirit  of  England 
was  revealed. 

There,  she  had  none  to  judge  and  none  to  restrain ;  she 
was  not  forced  to  any  act  which  her  judgment  or  her  heart 
rejected,  and  she  was  not  compelled  to  refrain  from  anything 
which  she  desired  to  do,  and  if  any  one  asks  what  is  the 
real  temper  and  conduct  of  England  in  dealing  with  others, 
it  is  a  perfectly  legitimate  answer  to  point  him  to  her  course 
in  India,  from  the  landing  of  Clive  in  1751,  down  to  the 
close  of  the  Sepoy  mutiny.     Since  that  event,  external  influ- 


66  ENGLAND   AND   THE   EASTERN   QUESTION. 

ences,  ttie  opinion  of  the  world,  and  the  fear  of  another  and 
successful  revolt,  are  modifying  her  spirit  and  her  course. 

The  rise  and  rapid  growth  of  Great  Britain's  East 
Indian  Empire,  is  one  of  the  m,arvels  of  modern  times,  and 
Americans  will  better  understand  the  nature  of  the  nation 
that  has  sought  to  destroy  us  through  this  rebellion,  if  they 
will  study  the  manner  in  which  she  has  obtained  and 
governed  her  Indian  possessions. 

In  1750  England  possessed  a  few  trading  factories,  or 
ports,  on  the  coast  of  Malabar  and  Coromandel,  with  the 
same  right,  and  no  more,  of  enlarging  her  territory  by  con- 
quest, that  Louis  l!Tapoleon  would  have  of  conquering  the 
United  States,  if  we  should  grant  the  French  permission  to 
have  cotton  trading  ports  opposite  Matamoras — or  to  state 
the  case  more  accurately,  if  he  should  make  a  bargain  with 
some  local  authorities  there  for  land,  and  then  declare  war 
if  the  United  States  should  object  to  his  occupation  of  our 
territory.  The  rapidity  with  which  the  Indian  Empire 
grew  from  this  small  beginning,  is  thus  stated  by  the 
Edinburgh  Eeview,  for  January,  1863  :  "In  1757  England 
had  obtained  not  quite  5,000  square  miles.  In  1793  she  had 
enlarged  her  dominion  to  200,000  squares  miles,  with  a 
population  of  40,000,000.  The  former  had  grown  when 
the  charter  was  renewed  in  1813,  to  320,000  square  miles, 
and  the  latter  to  60,000,000,  which  again  were  increased  in 
1833,  to  462,000  square  miles,  peopled  by  at  least  100,000,000 
of  natives.  At  this  day,"  adds  the  Review,  "  the  surface 
extent  of  land  actually  contributing  to  the  Indian  treasury 
falls  little  short  of  600,000  square  miles,  with  a  population 
of  120,000,000." 

The  manner  in  which  this  vast  territory  has  been  acquired, 
this  great  population  trodden  down,  is  very  forcibly  pre- 
sented in  the  Westminster  Eeview,  for  January,  1863,  from 
which  the  following  extracts  are  taken : 

"  To  us  annexation  is  only  a  long  word.  By  the  natives 
of  India  it  is  felt  to  be  an  awful  reality.  As  Mr.  Ludlow 
well  says,  we  should  view  the  annexation  '  not  as  swathed 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  EASTERN  QUESTION.  57 

mummies  in  a  Parliamentary  Paper,  but  as  bleeding  corpses 
before  tbe  eyes  of  the  multitude,  with  many  a  dark-skinned 
Mark  Antony  to  put  tongues  in  every  wound/  The  only 
way  in  which  to  bring  the  consequences  of  annexation 
home  to  us  is  to  put  such  a  case  as  the  following.  Let  us 
suppose,  that  France  is  the  dominant  Power  in  Europe; 
that  neither  England  nor  any  other  country  is  a  match  for 
her ;  that  she  does  not  wish  to  commence  hostilities  against 
any  of  them,  but  offers  to  be  peaceful  on  condition  that  her 
claims  to  supreme  power  are  recognized.  Let  it  also  be 
supposed  that  a  treaty  is  concluded,  by  which,  on  the  Queen 
of  England  surrendering  one-half  of  her  territories,  the 
remaining  half  is  guaranteed  to  her  and  her  successors  for 
ever.  Suppose  further,  that  suddenly  and  without  cause, 
France  decrees  the  annexation  of  England,  occupies  London 
with  troops,  dethrones  the  Queen,  dismisses  her  Ministers, 
deprives  ever}^  one  connected  with  the  Court  and  Govern- 
ment of  their  places,  salaries,  and  pensions,  shuts  every 
public  employment  against  Englishmen,  except  perhaps  the 
honorable  posts  of  letter-carriers,  policemen  and  scavengers. 
How  should  we  feel  under  these  circumstances?  Should 
we  content  ourselves  with  a  little  extra  grumbling,  and 
then  adapt  ourselves  to  our  altered  stations  ?  Or,  if  we  felt 
sure  that  grumbling  and  resistance  would  not  better  our 
condition,  should  we  not  cherish  bitter  animosity  against 
those  who  had  treated  us  so  badly,  and  should  we  not  expect 
impartial  onlookers  to  pity  our  fallen  fortunes  ?  It  is  to 
such  straits  as  these  that  we  have  reduced  the  upper  and 
middle  classes  of  every  principality  which  has  been  annexed. 
All  have  been  put  on  an  equal  footing ;  left  without  hope 
of  change  and  deprived  of  gratifying  a  natural  ambition  to 
distinguish  themselves  in  the  world.  Under  native  rulers, 
natives  are  advanced  to  places  of  honor  and  emolument; 
under  English  rule,  natives  of  every  class  are  contemned 
and  degraded.  When  governed  by  natives,  most  princi- 
palities yield  surplus  revenues ;  of  this  Sattara  was  a  striking 
example.  Lord  Dalhousie  coveted  the  large  sum  which 
was  thus  produced ;  he  annexed  that  State,  and  the  result 


58         ENGLAND  AND  THE  EASTERN  QUESTION. 

has  been  an  annual  deficit.  If  independent  States  are  well 
governed,  they  teach  us  a  lesson ;  if  badly  governed,  their 
inhabitants  can  draw  a  comparison  in  our  favor.  Should 
independent  princes  acquire  wealth,  they  either  expend  it 
among  their  people,  or  else  invest  it  in  Indian  securities ; 
in  either  case  India  is  a  gainer.  When  Englishmen  acquire 
wealth  they  remit  it  to  Europe,  and  thereby  help  to  impov- 
erish India. 

"  To  the  policy  of  annexation  let  there  be  an  end.  Let 
us  begin  to  conciliate  those  who  have  good  cause  to  detest 
us,  and  consider  it  a  nobler  thing  to  govern  humanely  and 
well,  than  to  acquire  fresh  territory  at  the  expense  of  our 
honor,  and  by  disregarding  every  rule  of  law  and  every 
human  right.  By  acting  thus  we  shall  be  the  gainers  in 
the  long  run.  In  1800  the  Duke  of  Wellington  declared, 
what  is  even  truer  now  than  when  he  made  the  declaration, 
that  the  extension  of  our  territory  and  influence  had 
exceeded  our  means.  *  Wherever  we  spread  ourselves  we 
increase  this  evil.  We  throw  out  of  employment  and 
means  of  subsistence  all  who  have  hitherto  managed  the 
revenue,  commanded,  or  served  in  the  armies,  and  have 
plundered  the  country.  These  people  become  additional 
enemies,  at  the  same  time  that,  by  the  extension  of  our  ter- 
ritory, our  means  of  supporting  our  Government  and  of 
defending  ourselves  are  proportionately  decreased.' 

"  To  his  policy  of  annexation  we  owe  it  that  much  of 
what  Captain  Bruce  told  Robert  Southey  more  than  twenty 
years  ago  is  true  to  the  letter  still :  '  If  our  empire  in  that 
country  were  overthrown,  the  only  monuments  which  would 
remain  of  us  would  be  broken  bottles  and  corks.  Along 
the  whole  coast  our  Government  is  popular,  because  the 
people  share  in  the  advantages  of  a  flourishing  trade.  But 
in  the  interior  we  are  hated.  There  is  a  grinding  system 
of  exaction ;  we  take  nine-tenths ;  and  the  natives  feel  the 
privation  of  honors  and  places  of  authority  more  than  the 
weight  of  imposts.  One  of  them  compared  our  system  to 
a  screw,  slow  in  its  motion,  never  violent  or  sudden,  but 
always  screwing  them  down  to  the  very  earth.'     It  is 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  EASTERN  QUESTION.         §9 

improbable  that  we  shall  ever  cease  to  tax,  but  we  can 
easily  cease  to  torment  the  natives.  Although  we  may 
never  gain  their  love,  yet  we  need  not  continue  to  merit 
their  unmitigated  hate.  "We  may  and  we  ought  to  refrain 
from  reducing  every  class  and  degree  among  them  to  the 
same  level  of  abject  dependence  on  our  bounty  and  subjec- 
tion to  our  decrees,  thereby  wilfully  shocking  their  prejudices 
and  cruelly  exciting  their  fears,  causing  the  man  of  rank  to 
live  in  continual  di'ead  for  the  suppression  of  his  title,  the 
landholder  for  the  confiscation  of  his  property." 

It  is  fortunate  for  an  American  who  would  describe  the 
nature  and  results  of  British  rule  in  India,  that  all  the  facts 
are  furnished  by  English  witnesses,  and  that  England  has 
drawn  her  own  portrait  as  a  ruler  of  colonies.  Evidence 
of  the  same  character,  coming  from  any  other  source,  would 
certainly  be  discredited. 

One  fact  is  quite  sufficient  to  show  the  main  cause  of  the 
wretchedness  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people  of  India,  and 
reveals  very  clearly  the  pressure  not  of  a  Grovernment,  but 
of  an  oppression.  The  Government  holds  all  the  lands  of 
the  country  as  the  supreme  Landlord,  and  the  laborers  are 
tenants  at  will,  or  hold  only  by  leases  at  stipulated  rates — 
the  rent  required  leaving  for  the  cultivator  nothing  but  the 
most  scanty  food,  and  clothing,  and  shelter,  so  that  the 
laborer  can  obtain  no  interest  in  the  soil,  has  no  motive 
for  improvement,  and  has  no  hope  for  himself  or  his  chil- 
dren beyond  his  mud  hut  and  his  handful  of  rice.  Some 
beneficial  alterations  are  being  made  in  this  respect;  the 
leases  are  being  given  for  longer  periods  than  they  once 
were,  but  still  there  is  no  approach  to  that  system  which  is 
the  strength  and  glory  of  America,  the  absolute  ownership 
of  the  land  by  those  who  till  it. 

Americans  at  least  understand  that  it  is  absolutely  essential 
to  the  elevation  of  the  laboring  classes,  that  they  should  be 
the  owners  of  the  soil.  Wherever  this  is  not  the  case,  they 
are  speedily  reduced  to  the  rudest  hut,  and  the  coarsest  and 
scantiest  food  and  clothing,  as  the  sole  reward  of  their  labor, 


60         ENGLAND  AND  THE  EASTERN  QUESTION. 

It  is  perhaps  quite  natural,  tliat  Great  Britain,  whose 
lands  at  home  are  nearly  all  in  the  hands  of  the  aristocracy, 
and  whose  peasantry  are  but  a  single  step  above  the  condi- 
tion of  serfs,  should  deem  it  quite  proper  that  the  East 
Indian  Government  should  own  all  the  lands  of  India,  which 
they  could  seize,  and  allow  the  native  cultivators  to  retain 
only  the  slave's  portion  of  their  earnings;  and  it  is  not 
strange  that  this  same  aristocracy  is  in  active  and  earnest 
sympathy  with  the  slave  lords  of  the  South,  in  their  attempt 
to  destroy  the  free  labor  institutions  of  the  North. 

Every  oppressor  is  by  instinct  in  league  with  all  other 
oppressors,  in  every  attempt  to  reduce  the  laborer  to  the 
condition  of  the  slave. 

The  actual  condition  of  India,  under  British  rule,  and  the 
spirit  of  the  English  Government,  is  well  exhibited  in  the 
following  extracts  from  the  Edinburgh  Review,  for  Janu- 
ary, 1853 : 

"  Still  the  utmost  that  can  be  predicated  even  of  the  Ryots, 
considered  as  subjects  of  the  English  Crown,  is  that  they 
seldom,  if  ever,  trouble  themselves  with  discussing  the  merits 
of  the  system  under  which  they  live ;  being  content  to  do  as 
their  fathers  did  before  them,  and  satisfied  so  long  as  life 
and  property  are  safe.  But  it  is  not  so  with  any  of  the 
classes  above  the  mere  cultivators  :  quite  otherwise.  They 
see  in  the  English  Government  a  power  which,  however 
evenly  it  may  profess  to  hold  the  scales  between  man  and 
man,  entertains  no  sympathy  for  them  or  for  the  traditions 
of  their  ancestry.  They  may  acquire  fortunes  by  trade; 
they  may  build  ships  and  obtain  the  honor  of  knighthood ; 
and  whatever  they  earn  by  honest  industry  they  feel  that 
they  will  be  permitted  to  keep :  but  all  beyond  this  is  a 
blank;  and  they  are  fully  alive  to  its  dreariness.  There 
are  no  such  avenues  to  advancement  opened  to  them  as 
stirred  the  ambition  and  stimulated  the  exertions  of  their 
forefathers.  They  cannot  attain  in  the  civil  service  of  the 
State  to  a  station  more  elevated  than  that  of  an  ill-paid  rural 
magistrate,  or  a  clerk  in  one  of  the  public  ofiices.    Even  the 


ENGLAND   AND   THE   EASTERN   QUESTION.  61 

status  of  a  practising  attorney  m  the  Courts  of  Law  seems 
to  be  denied  to  them,  though  the  decision  of  the  jiidge  who 
settled  the  question  was  manifestly  delivered  under  a  pain- 
ful sense  of  its  iniquity.  And  as  to  the  army,  we  shall  have 
occasion  presently  to  explain,  that  it  offers  no  prizes  for 
which  it  would  be  worth  while  for  a  native  gentleman  to 
strive.  ISTow  people  so  circumstanced  cannot  be  loyal  in 
any  sense  of  the  term.  They  may  submit  to  their  fate  with 
more  or  less  of  resignation;  either  because  they  see  no 
chance  of  escape  from  it,  or  through  the  influence  of  that 
fatalism  which  enters  largely  into  the  faith  of  all  the  reli- 
gionists of  the  East.  But  it  is  impossible  that  they  can 
nourish  the  slightest  feeling  of  love  for  the  government 
which  thus  grinds  them  down,  far  less  be  prepared  to  make 
sacrifices  of  any  kind  in  defence  of  it.  J^or  do  they.  By 
the  native  gentry  of  India, — and  it  is  a  great  mistake  to 
suppose  that  India  has  not  its  gentry  of  ancient  lineage  and 
proud  reminiscences, — ^the  rule  of  the  English  is  regarded 
not  only  without  favor,  but  with  settled  detestation.  There 
is  not  one  among  them  all  but  would  rejoice  to  see  it  over- 
thrown to-morrow. 

"  In  a  word,  it  is  idle  to  talk  of  the  contentment  of  the 
people  of  British  India  with  the  particular  form  of  govern- 
ment which  we  have  established  among  them.  They  submit 
to  it,  because  they  cannot  help  themselves, — the  masses  with 
the  same  degree  of  apathy  which  caused  their  co-religionists 
to  submit  to  the  government  of  the  Ameers  in  Scinde,  and 
to  that  of  the  Sikh  Sirdars  in  the  Punjab.  But  no  living 
soul  entertains  the  slightest  predilection  for  us  or  for  our 
government,  while  all  who  may  be  crossed  by  it  in  their 
schemes  of  personal  or  family  ambition  execrate,  while  they 
endure,  what  they  feel  to  be  the  wrong. 

"  That  we  are  taking  no  prejudiced  view  of  this  important 
matter,  nor  broaching  opinions  that  lack  authority  on  which 
to  rest,  a  very  little  research  on  the  part  of  our  readers  will 
enable  them  to  ascertain.  The  statements  adduced  here 
have  been  held  and  promulgated  by  almost  every  man  of 
note  who  has  made  India  and  its  institutions  the  subject  of 


62-  ENGLAND   AND   THE   EASTERN   QUESTION, 

his  inquiries.  Open  Mountstuart's  Elphinstone's  able  His- 
tory, and  you  will  find  tlie  same  tone  pervading  every  page. 
He  speaks  of  the  people  whom  we  thus  slight  and  keep 
down  as  having  attained  to  a  high  degree  of  civilization 
and  prosperity  before  the  march  of  Alexander  across  the 
Oxus.  He  describes  them  as  retaining  these  advantages  in 
the  midst  of  endless  wars,  revolutions,  and  schemes.  And 
he  attributes  the  circumstance  to  their  admirable  municipal 
institutions,  which  survived  every  change  of  dynasty  except 
the  last.  '  Dynasty  upon  dynasty,'  he  says,  quoting  from 
Sir  Charles  Metcalf,  '  tumbles  down ;  revolution  succeeds 
revolution, — Hindoo,  Pagan,  Moghul,  Mahratta,  Sikh,  Eng- 
lish, are  all  masters  in  turn ;  but  the  village  community 
remain  the  same.  This  union  of  the  village  communities, 
each  one  forming  a  separate  little  state  in  itself,  has  contri- 
buted more  than  any  other  cause  to  the  preservation  of  the 
people  of  India  through  all  the  changes  and  revolutions 
they  have  suffered ;  and  is  in  a  high  degree  conducive  to 
their  happiness  and  to  their  enjoyment  of  a  great  portion 
of  freedom  and  independence.'  Again  :  *  The  main  evil  of 
our  system  is,  the  degraded  state  in  which  we  hold  the 
natives.  "We  suppose  them  to  be  superstitious,  ignorant, 
prone  to  falsehood,  and  corrupt.  In  our  well-meaning  zeal 
for  their  welfare,  we  shudder  at  the  idea  of  committing  to 
men  so  depraved  any  share  in  the  administration  of  their 
own  country.  We  exclude  them  from  every  situation  of 
trust  and  emolument ;  we  confine  them  to  the  lowest  offices, 
with  scarcely  a  bare  subsistence ;  and  even  these  are  left  in 
their  hands  from  necessity,  because  Europeans  are  utterly 
incapable  of  filling  them.  We  treat  them  as  an  inferior 
race  of  beings.  Men,  who  under  a  native  government  might 
have  held  the  first  dignities  of  the  State,  who,  but  for  us, 
might  have  been  governors  of  provinces,  are  regarded  as 
little  better  than  menial  servants,  are  often  no  better  paid, 
and  scarcely  permitted  to  sit  in  our  presence.  We  reduce 
them  to  this  abject  state,  and  then  look  upon  them  with 
disdain  as  men  unworthy  of  high  station.  Under  most  of 
the  Mahomedan  princes  of  India,  the  Hindoos  were  eligible 


ENGLAND   AND   THE   EASTERN   QUESTION.  '68 

to  all  the  civil  offices  of  Government,  and  they  ireqnently 
possessed  a  more  important  share  in  them  than  their  con- 
querors.' 

"  They  are  more  secure  from  the  calamities  both  of  foreign 
war  and  internal  commotions ;  their  persons  and  property 
are  more  secure  from  violence;  they  cannot  be  wantonly 
punished,  or  their  property  seized,  by  persons  in  power; 
and  their  taxation  is,  on  the  whole,  lighter.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  they  have  no  share  in  making  laws  for  them- 
selves, little  in  administering  them,  except  in  very  subordinate 
offices ;  they  can  rise  to  no  high  station,  civil '  or  military ; 
they  are  everywhere  regarded  as  an  inferior  race,  and  often 
rather  as  vassals  or  servants  than  as  the  ancient  owners  and 
masters  of  the  country.  It  is  not  enough  that  we  confer 
upon  the  natives  the  benefits  of  just  laws  and  moderate 
taxation,  unless  we  endeavor  to  raise  their  character ;  but, 
under  a  foreign  government,  there  are  so  many  causes  which 
tend  to  depress  it,  that  it  is  not  easy  to  prevent  it  from 
smkmg.  It  is  an  old  observation,  that  he  who  loses  his 
liberty,  loses  half  his  virtue.  This  is  true  of  nations  as  well 
as  of  individuals.  To  have  no  property  scarcely  degrades 
more  in  one  case,  than  in  the  other  to  have  property  at  the 
disposal  of  a  foreign  government  in  which  we  have  no  share. 
The  enslaved  nation  loses  the  privileges  of  a  nation,  as  the 
slave  does  that  of  a  free  man.  It  loses  the  privilege  of 
taxing  itself,  of  making  its  own  laws,  of  having  any  share 
in  their  administration,  or  in  the  general  government  of  the 
country.  British  India  has  none  of  these  privileges ;  it  has 
not  that  of  being  ruled  by  a  despot  of  its  own ;  for,  to  a 
nation  which  has  lost  its  liberty,  it  is  still  a  privilege  to  have 
its  countrymen,  and  not  foreigners,  as  its  rulers.  N"ations 
always  take  a  part  with  their  government,  whether  free  or 
despotic,  against  foreigners.  Against  an  invasion  of  for- 
eigners, the  national  character  is  always  engaged,  and  in 
such  a  cause  the  people  often  contend  as  strenuously  in  the 
defence  of  a  despotic  as  of  a  free  government.  It  is  not  the 
arbitrary  power  of  a  national  sovereign,  but  the  subjugation 
to  a  foreign  one,  that  destroys  national  character,  and  extin- 


64         ENGLAND  AND  THE  EASTERN  QUESTION. 

guishes  national  spirit.  When  a  people  cease  to  have  a 
national  character  to  maintain,  they  lose  the  mainspring  of 
whatever  is  laudable,  both  in  public  and  in  private  life,  and 
the  private  sinks  with  the  public  character.  This  is  true  of 
every  nation,  as  well  as  of  India.  It  is  true  of  our  own. 
Let  Britain  be  subjugated  by  a  foreign  power  to-morrow; 
let  the  people  be  excluded  from  all  share  in  the  government, 
from  public  honors,  from  every  of&ce  of  high  trust  and 
emolument ;  let  them,  in  every  situation,  be  considered  as 
unworthy  of  trust,  and  all  their  knowledge,  and  all  their 
literature,  sacred  and  profane,  will  not  save  them  from 
becoming,  in  another  century  or  two,  a  low-minded,-  deceit- 
ful, and  dishonest  race.' 

"  These  are  words  of  wisdom,  put  upon  record  by  one  who 
better,  perhaps,  than  any  servant  of  the  Company,  under- 
stood the  subject  which  he  was  discussing.  ]^or  was  he, 
while  thus  reasoning,  blind  to  the  well-nigh  universal  degra- 
dation of  the  people  whose  cause  he  pleaded.  I^o  one 
knew  better  than  he  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  Company's 
dominions  are  the  most  abject  race  in  India;  no  one  was 
more  keenly  and  bitterly  aware  of  the  causes  which  had 
produced  such  a  result.  For  even  the  wretched  satisfaction 
of  seeing  the  strangers  who  seek  their  shores  for  the  purpose 
of  growing  rich  at  the  public  expense,  settle  down,  and 
become,  by  degrees,  one  of  themselves,  is  denied  them. 
Other  conquerors  had  overrun  their  territories  before,  as- 
sumed supreme  power,  and  dispensed  patronage ;  but  they 
did  so  upon  the  spot,  and  excluded  no  man,  of  whatever 
race  descended,  from  a  share  in  it.  We  send  out  our  youth 
by  shoals  from  England  to  amass  wealth  and  exercise  power 
for  a  season ;  each  batch  returning  to  England,  when  it  has 
satisfied  its  own  wishes,  only  that  it  may  be  succeeded  by 
another.  "What  bond  of  good  feeling  can  exist  between  the 
hundred  and  twenty  millions  whom  we  thus  govern  and 
the  few  thousands  of  white-faced  men  whom  we  appoint  to 
plunder  while  they  profess  to  govern  and  protect  them." 

Such  is  the  Eritish  dominion  in  India,  extending  at  this 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  EASTERN  QUESTION.         65 

time  over  150,000,000  of  people ;  such,  according  to  her  own 
witnesses,  is  the  manner  in  which  it  has  been  acquired,  and 
these  in  general  are  the  results  of  her  government  for  the 
millions  she  has  thus  subdued. 

A  reference  to  these  facts  was  necessary,  in  order  to  show 
clearly  the  nature  of  her  policy,  and  the  unscrupulous  selfish- 
ness with  which  she  has  carried  it  out,  when  she  was  dealing 
with  those  weaker  than  herself.  It  was  important  to  know 
that  in  all  her  course  in  India,  no  moral  or  religious  con- 
sideration was  permitted  to  interfere  with  any  plan  for 
extending  her  power  or  increasing  her  revenues,  that  neither 
the  rights  or  welfare  of  others  were  allowed  to  have  the 
slightest  influence  in  deciding  a  question  of  conquest  or 
annexation,  and  that  the  only  inquiry  was,  will  this  increase 
the  British  power,  and  add  to  the  wealth  of  Englishmen  t 
It  was  necessary  to  know  this,  in  order  to  prepare  us  for 
her  subsequent  attack  upon  Kussia,  and  her  recent  joy  at 
the  prospect  of  our  destruction,  the  desire  to  attack  us  in 
our  weakness,  so  strong,  that  we  barely  escaped  a  war,  and 
for  the  malicious  blow  struck  upon  our  commerce  through 
the  Confederate  privateers.  This  East  Indian  history  will 
also  enable  us  to  judge  exactly  how  much  we  can  depend 
upon  pleasant  words  or  argument,  or  appeals  made  to  con- 
science, or  honor,  or  justice,  when  dealing  with  England^ 
unless  back  of  all  these,  are  the  ships  and  the  cannon  which 
excite  her  fears. 

This  glance  at  the  doings  and  policy  of  Great  Britain  in 
India,  will  enable  us  to  estimate  aright  her  motives  in  the 
Crimean  war,  and  to  judge  whether  we  have  any  reason  to 
expect  her  friendship  in  the  future.  Her  policy  in  India  is 
the  same  that  guides  her  in  her  dealings  with  every  other 
nation.  She  carries  it  out  on  all  sides  so  far  as  she  has  the  I 
power,  and  she  crushes,  if  she  can,  whatever  opposes.  i 

The  one  central  idea  of  this  policy  is,  to  make  Great 
Britain  the  manufacturing,  the  commercial,  the  money 
centre  of  the  world.  For  this  purpose  she  has  seized  upon 
every  available  spot  of  earth  and  made  it  tributary  to  her- 
self, taking  the  Lion's  share  of  all  that  could  be  produced, 
5 


66  ENGLAND  AND  THE  EASTERN  QUESTION. 

stripping  her  American  colonies  by  oppressive  enactments, 
and  leaving  the  people  of  India  just  enough  to  enable  them 
to  continue  their  toil  for  her. 

As  shown  in  quotations  previously  made,  she  struggled 
hard  to  render  manufactures,  commerce,  and  a  navy,  impos- 
sible in  America,  for  the  same  reasons  that  she  would  gladly 
destroy  them  now;  and  she  ruined  the  domestic  manufactures 
of  India,  in  order  to  compel  the  Hindoos  to  raise  the  raw 
material  for  her  own  mills,  and  then  to  purchase  from  her 
the  manufactured  articles,  the  Indian  consumer  paying  thus 
not  only  the  profit  of  manufacture  to  England,  but  the 
freight  to  her  ships  for  carrying  it  twice  across  the  ocean. 
^  The  position  of  England  at  the  time  just  preceding  the 
Alliance  with  France,  and  the  Crimean  war,  her  necessities, 
dangers,  hopes  and  fears,  were  the  natural  result  of  the 
policy  which  she  had  been  pursuing  for  more  than  a  hun- 
dred years,  to  compel  the  nations  to  be  tributary  to  her 
capital,  skill,  machinery,  and  ships,  to  make  them  virtually 
mere  colonial  appendages  of  her  own  central  power. 

Her  aim  was,  to  control,  and  bring  to  her  own  mills,  as 
far  as  possible,  the  raw  material  of  the  world,  and  having 
manufactured  it,  resell  it  in  all  markets,  levying  upon  the 
people  the  tribute  of  her  profits,  and  the  freight  of  her  ships. 
To  the  full  extent  of  her  ability  she  prevented  every  other 
ttation  from  manufacturing  for  itself,  or  building  up  a  com- 
merce or  a  navy  of  its  own.  While  her  own  manufactures 
were  in  their  infancy,  she  excluded  every  rival  from  the 
markets  that  she  could  control,  as  she  did  from  the  American 
colonies ;  but  so  soon  as  her  accumulated  capital,  her  skill 
and  experience,  and  her  perfected  machinery,  gave  her  the 
necessary  superiority,  then  she  proclaimed  the  doctrine  of 
free  trade  to  all  the  nations,  knowing  well  that  if  she  could 
thus  gain  access  to  the  markets  of  the  world,  her  capital 
and  skill  would  thus  enable  her  to  crush  the  growth  of 
manufactures  elsewhere.  Particularly  did  she  desire  a  per- 
fectly untrammelled  trade  with  E-ussia  and  America,  because 
exactly  in  proportion  as  she  could  introduce  her  own  goods, 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  EASTERN  QUESTION.  67 

would  she  prevent  the  erection  of  mills,  and  the  growtn  of 
a  commerce  and  a  navy. 

In  this  policy  the  South  has  continually  sympathized 
most  earnestly  with  England,  because  she  feared  as  much 
as  Great  Britain  the  rapid  growth  of  the  Free  States,  and 
the  Southern  leaders  have  persistently  opposed  any  substan- 
tial protection  to  Northern  manufactures,  because  of  the 
wealth,  the  commerce,  and  the  navy,  which  they  would 
create. 

If  the  !N"orth  could  only  be  restricted  to  the  raising  of 
grain,  wool,  stock,  etc.,  the  supremacy  of  the  Slave  States 
would  be  permanent  and  complete. 

At  the  time  of  the  formation  of  the  French  Alliance,  the 
power  of  England  was  based,  not  upon  her  military  strength, 
nor  upon  the  extent  of  her  territory,  nor  upon  the  number 
of  her  people,  but  upon  her  capital,  her  mills,  and  her  navy, 
and  these  again  depended  upon  her  power  to  control  the 
lands  producing  her  raw  material,  and  the  markets  for  the 
sale  of  her  goods.  At  this  time  France  was  becoming  a 
formidable  naval  power,  and  England  feared  that  she  would 
attempt  to  avenge  the  disgrace  of  "Waterloo ;  Eussia  was 
cherishing  her  manufacturus,  opening  up  on  all  sides  her 
resources,  increasing  her  navy,  and  growing  on  towards 
India.  In  the  West,  the  United  States  were  meeting  her 
already  in  the  world's  markets  with  the  produce  of  their 
own  looms,  while  their  commercial  marine  was  equal  to  her 
own.  Such  was  the  condition  of  England  just  previous  tc 
the  alliance. 


68       REMOTER  CAUSES  OP  THE  PRESENT  POLICY  OF  PBANCB. 


CHAPTER   VII 


REMOTER  CATTSES  OF  THE  PRESENT  POLICY  OF  FRANCE. 


In  addition  to  tlie  motives  which  have  governed  England 
in  her  struggle  to  compel  all  nations  to  become  tributary 
to  her,  there  are  others  of  almost  equal  power  that  are 
peculiar  to  France,  and  which  must  be  studied,  in  order  to 
understand  her  attack  upon  Russia,  her  present  attitude 
towards  the  United  States,  and  her  movement  upon  Mexico. 

First — ^France  has  never  forgotten  that  she  was  once  the 
Imperial  Head  of  the  nations  of  Europe ;  in  fact,  the  politi- 
cal and  religious  Dictator  of  the  world.  The  Empire  of 
Charlemagne  is  regarded  as  presenting  France  in  her  right- 
ful position,  as  Huler  of  the  Latin  nations,  and  these,  it  is 
believed,  ought  to  be  supreme  in  Europe.  The  Kingdom 
of  Charlemagne  is  looked  upon  as  the  luminous  point,  the 
triumphant  era  in  the  history  of  France,  and  the  idea  of 
re-establishing  her  lost  supremacy,  of  making  her  throne 
once  more  the  Imperial  center  of  the  world,  has  influenced 
the  policy  of  her  ablest  statesmen,  and  her  most  ambitious 
kings.  It  is  well  known  that  this  thought  was  a  leading 
one  in  the  mind  of  the  first  Napoleon,  and  he  indicated  this 
most  clearly  by  causing  himself  to  be  crowned  with  the  iron 
crown  of  Charlemagne,  as  a  sign  of  what  he  intended  to  be, 
and  to  do. 

His  expedition  into  Egypt  was  connected  with  this  idea 
of  making  France  the  central  power  of  Europe.  He  hoped 
to  wrest  from  England  the  control  of  the  Eastern  trade,  by 
holding  Egypt,  and  other  Eastern  shores  of  the  Mediter- 


REMOTER  CAUSES  OP  THE  PRESENT  POLICY  OF  FRANCE.        69 

ranean,  and  by  bringing  the  wealth  of  the  Indies  to  the 
French  cities,  through  the  old  canal  of  the  Pharoahs.  He 
thought  in  this  manner  to  possess  himself  of  Constantinople, 
to  revive  the  Eastern  Empire,  and  so  render  impossible  the 
further  progress  of  Russia  towards  the  East. 

The  declarations  and  the  acts  of  Louis  l^apoleon  have 
given  explicit  notice  to  the  world,  that  he  has  fully  adopted 
the  main  ideas  of  his  uncle,  and  that  he  intends  to  carry 
them  out.  His  alliance  with  England,  for  the  double  pur- 
pose of  ridding  himself  of  a  powerful  adversary  while  he 
perfected  his  plans,  and  of  using  her  for  his  own  purposes ; 
his  attack  on  Russia,  his  movement  upon  Italy,  and  the 
occupation  of  Rome,  his  position  in  Syria,  the  finishing  of 
the  ship  canal  across  the  Isthmus  of  Suez,  in  which  he  is 
now  engaged,  the  plans  which  years  ago  he  made  of  a  ship 
canal  across  the  American  Isthmus  at  Panama,  the  explora- 
tions which  he  has  made  of  the  mineral  wealth  of  our  Pacific 
coast,  and  now  his  occupation  of  Mexico — all  are  parts  of 
one  gigantic  scheme,  to  make  France  once  more  the  recog- 
nized head  of  the  Latin  races  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  and 
give  to  her  more  than  the  power  and  splendor  of  the  Empire 
of  Charlemagne.  Whoever  attempts  to  study  the  career 
of  Louis  !N^apoleon  without  understanding  this  scheme,  will 
have  no  key  to  his  policy.  Viewed  in  connection  with  this, 
every  movement  is  plain. 

But  the  religious  sentiment  has  also  exerted  an  important 
influence  upon  the  policy  of  France.  In  the  time  of  Char- 
lemagne, she  was  the  one  Empire  which,  with  the  one 
Church,  ruled  all  the  Western  world.  The  Roman  Church 
and  the  Roman  Empire,  with  the  French  king  at  its  head, 
they  were  jointly  supreme.  The  Empire  was  the  earthly 
ally  and  supporter  of  the  Church,  and  the  Church  gave  to 
the  Empire  the  full  authority  of  what  was  deemed  by  all  a 
Divine  sanction.  Charlemagne  was  crowned  as  Emperor 
of  the  Romans,  and  the  Roman  Church,  and  Roman  Empire, 
with  France  as  its  head,  were  expected  to  go  down  into  the 
future  together. 

The  Imperial  crown  then  passed  from  France  into  the 


70       EEMOTER  CAUSES  OF  THE  PRESENT  POLICY  OF  FRANCE. 

possession  of  Germany ;  but  France  has  not  forgotten  that 
she  was  once  the  political  head  and  recognized  defender  of, 
the  Latin  Church,  and  from  the  time  of  Charlemagne  to 
the  present,  the  French  clergy  have  mourned  over  their  lost 
glory,  and  have  hoped  that  in  some  manner  it  might  be 
regained.  For  the  double  purpose  of  restoring  the  Roman 
Empire,  with  France  at  its  head,  and  he  the  Emperor  of 
France,  and  of  bringing  to  his  support  the  power  of  the 
church,  Napoleon  caused  himself  to  be  crowned  by  the 
Pope  with  the  crown  of  Charlemagne,  reviving  in  the 
French  clergy  the  hope  of  the  restoration  of  their  former 
power.  For  precisely  similar  reasons,  Louis  J^apoleon  has 
connected  his  movements  with  the  old  ambitions  of  the 
French  clergy,  and  of  the  Catholic  Church  as  a  whole, 
espousing  the  cause  of  the  Roman  Church  at  Jerusalem 
and  Constantinople,  and  taking  on  that  occasion  the  part 
of  champion  of  the  Western  Church,  and  then  pushing 
Austria  aside  in  Italy,  and  lifting  France  to  the  foremost 
position  among  the  Latin  races ;  and,  finally,  invading  Mex- 
ico, and  threatening  the  United  States,  with  the  solemnly 
avowed  intention  of  restoring  in  America  the  prestige  of  the 
Latin  race,  and  of  course,  the  power  of  the  Roman  Church. 

These  two  ideas,  the  restoration  of  the  Empire,  and  the 
supremacy  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  must  not  be  lost 
sight  of  by  any  one  who  wishes  to  understand  the  policy 
of  France,  and  they  should  be  very  carefully  considered  by 
Americans,  because  thus  only  can  we  know  the  power  of 
the  motives  by  which  the  French  Emperor  is  governed, 
both  in  his  attack  upon  Mexico,  and  in  his  hostility  to  the 
Republic. 

Thus  only  can  we  judge  whether  it  is  probable  that  he 
will  abandon  for  slight  reasons  what  he  has  undertaken  on 
this  continent,  or  whether  it  will  be  necessary  for  us  to 
decide  by  arms  the  question  of  imposing  a  French  Mon- 
archy by  force  upon  a  people  inhabiting  our  border,  with 
the  avowed  intention  of  using  the  territory,  the  resources, 
and  the  proximity  of  position,  as  a  standing  menace  to 
this  Republic,  and  to  our  Protestant  Faith. 


^"•i/ 


REMOTER  CAUSES  OF  THE  PRESENT  POLICY  OF  FRANCE.   71 

We  shall  find  that  our  danger  from  this  quarter  is  greater 
than  from  England,  for  while  Great  Britain  declares  that 
she  does  not  contend  for  an  idea,  the  French  movement  has 
in  it  the  dangerous  element  of  religious  enthusiasm.  True, 
it  is  almost  dormant  as  yet,  or  living  only  in  the  hosom  of 
the  clergy;  but  the  history  of  the  church  shows  how  easily 
a  movement  for  the  universal  restoration  of  Homanism 
might  rouse  whole  nations  for  a  crusade,  for  what  the 
people  would  deem  a  truly  holy  war. 

We  shall  find,  that  with  the  exception  of  a  short  period 
in  her  history,  wherever  France  has  carried  her  arms,  she 
has  borne  with  her  a  zeal  for  the  Papal  church. 

These  facts,  in  the  past  history  of  France,  have  for  us  a 
very  grave  significance,  when  they  are  coupled  with  the 
exact  words  of  the  Emperor  himself,  explaining  his  inten- 
tions in  the  movement  upon  Mexico :  "  We  propose,"  he 
says,  "  to  restore  to  the  Latin  race,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
"  Atlantic,  all  its  strength  and  prestige.  We  have  an  inter- 
"  est,  indeed,  in  the  Republic  of  the  United  States  being 
"powerful  and  prosperous;  but  not  that  she  should  take 
"  possession  of  the  whole  Grulf  of  Mexico,  thence  to  com- 
"  mand  the  Antilles,  as  well  as  South  America,  and  to  be 
"  the  only  dispenser  of  the  products  of  the  E'ew  World," 

Whoever  will  weigh  these  words  in  connection  with  the 
history  of  the  Latin  race,  and  Latin  church,  with  the  schemes 
of  ^Napoleon,  and  the  course  of  the  present  Emperor,  will  be 
convinced  that  the  almost  immediate  future  will  present  to 
us,  and  to  Europe,  the  most  solemn  questions  of  modern 
times.  It  seems  almost  certain,  that  our  contest  with  the 
slave  power,  fierce  and  bloody  as  it  is,  will  be  but  the  open- 
ing act  in  a  war  drama,  and  that  gigantic,  though  it  be,  it 
may  prove  the  most  insignificant  of  the  series. 

The  words  of  Louis  IlTapoleon  appear  like  the  throwing 
down  the  gage  of  battle  to  all  Protestant  nations,  to  all  free 
institutions ;  nay,  more,  to  every  people  outside  of  the  Papal 
church, — and  the  most  alarming  feature  of  the  declaration 
is,  that  this  is  precisely  its  meaning.  Such  a  threat  in  regard 
to  the  Western  Continent  presupposes  the  intention  to  restore 


72       REMOTER  CAUSES  OP  THE  PRESENT  POLICY  OF  FRANCE. 

the  lost  prestige  and  strength  of  the  Latin  race  and  Papal 
church  in  Europe  also,  and  the  reality  of  this  intention  is 
clearly  set  forth  in  every  step  which  the  French  Emperor 
has  taken,  from  the  Crimean  war  to  the  present  time, 
including  that  proposal  for  a  European  Congress,  which 
means  simply  an  attempt  to  chrystallize  the  Latin  powers 
around  France  as  the  Imperial  centre, — and  to  make  the 
Emperor  not  only  independent  of  England,  but,  as  he  hopes, 
to  give  him  the  power  to  crush  her  if  he  pleases. 

We  know  too  well  what  is  implied  in  the  proposition  to 
restore  the  strength  and  prestige  of  the  Latin  race  and  Papal 
church,  both  here  and  in  Europe. 

It  means  the  destruction  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  the 
suppression  of  free  speech  and  free  thought,  the  elevation 
of  nobles  and  priests,  the  ignorance,  the  poverty,  the  deg- 
radation of  the  people.  We  know  that  this  cannot  be 
accomplished  without  such  a  conflict  as  the  world  never 
saw;  and  yet  every  sign  of  the  times  compels  us  to  the 
conclusion,  that  such  a  stupendous  conspiracy  against  the 
liberties  of  humanity  is  being  matured,  and  that  the  Latin 
race  and  the  Papal  church  will  make  the  attempt  under  the 
lead  of  France,  and  that  we  must  take  the  Emperor  at  his 
word,  when  he  sets  forth  the  invasion  of  Mexico  as  a  part 
of  the  plan.  The  scheme  is  so  bold,  and  so  vast,  that  it 
seems  more  like  a  Satanic  inspiration  than  a  mere  concep- 
tion of  an  ambitious  man. 

The  following  extracts  from  a  very  able  article  on  the 
Monroe  Doctrine,  in  The  New  Englander,  for  Oct.,  1863, 
exhibit  the  subject  in  a  very  clear  and  forcible  manner : 

"  The  other  dangerous  element  in  the  case  before  us  is 
the  growing  arrogance  and  strength  of  the  Papal  Power  in 
connection  with  all  the  progressive  developments  of  French 
ambition  and  conquest.  It  is  curious  to  see  how  everything 
that  France  does  or  gains  or  aims  at  becomes  subservient  to 
the  Papal  Power,  and  turns  to  the  disadvantage  of  religious 
liberty  and  of  enlightened  civilization.  Beginning  with  tho 
overthrow  of  the  Eoman  Eepublic,  and  the  still  continued 


KEMOTER  CAUSES  OF  THE  PRESENT  POLICY  OF  FRANCE.   73 

armed  occupancy  of  Eome  by  a  Frencb.  army,  as  the  only 
means  of  upholding  the  Pope  in  his  throne  as  a  temporal 
prince,  we  see  in  Cochin  China,  in  Madagascar,  in  Turkey, 
in  Spanish  America,  in  Poland,  and  everywhere,  that  it  is 
the  support  and  favor  of  the  Pope  which  constitutes  Louis 
I^apoleon's  reliance  in  the  last  resort ;  and  it  is  the  exten- 
sion and  consolidation  of  the  Papal  Power  which  gives 
unity  to  all  his  aims,  and  the  strength  of  a  common  interest 
to  all  his  schemes.  It  is  now  clearly  understood  that  the 
outbreak  in  Poland  was  but  a  plan  for  establishing  in  the 
centre  of  Europe  a  Franco-Pomish  interest  that  should  serve 
as  a  point  of  defense  and  aggression  against  Russia  and  the 
Greek  Church.  It  is  Popery,  struggling  against  the  advance 
of  freedom  and  civilization,  that  has  for  forty  years  kept  the 
Spanish  American  states  in  turmoil,  and  kept  them  from 
consolidating  their  governments  or  improving  their  condi- 
tions. In  Venezuela,  in  Colombia,  in  Ecuador,  everywhere, 
it  is  the  Priests'  Party  against  the  body  of  the  people ;  the 
people  striving  to  recover  the  right  of  governing  for  them- 
selves, and  the  Priests,  aided  by  a  few  bigots,  a  few  rich 
men,  a  few  European  Know-nothings,  and  a  good  many 
reckless  and  marauding  brigands,  trying  to  keep  the  power 
of  the  government  in  the  hands  of  a  class,  and  subject  the 
many  to  the  control  of  a  few.  This  power  has  at  length 
been  happily  put  down,  at  least  for  the  present,  b}^  the 
gallant  and  patriotic  President  Mosquera  in  Colombia.  It 
has  succumbed,  at  least  temporarily,  to  a  compromise  in 
Venezuela;  while,  in  the  adjoining  republic  of  Ecuador,  it 
has  apparently  achieved  an  absolute  triumph,  in  the  treaty 
which  was  concluded  in  April  last,  by  President  Morena 
with  Cardinal  Antonelli  in  the  name  of  the  Pope.*    And 

*  This  treaty,  which  has  been  published  in  El  Nacional,  the  official  journal 
of  Ecuador,  contains  the  following  articles,  which  serve  to  illustrate  the  Pope's 
idea  of  religious  liberty,  where  he  has  things  in  his  own  way : 

"  1.  The  Roman  Catholic  and  Apostolic  religion  is  the  religion  of  the  Republic 
of  Ecuador.  Consequently,  the  exercise  of  any  other  worship,  or  the  existence 
of  anyflociety  condemned  by  the  Church,  will  not  be  permitted  by  the  Republic. 

"2.  The  education  of  the  young  in  all  public  and  private  schools  shall  be 
entirely  conformed  to  the  doctrines  of  the  [Roman]  Catholic  Religion.    Th« 


74       REMOTER  CAUSES  OF  THE  PRESENT  POLICY  OF  FRANCE. 

one  of  the  chief  ends  of  the  conquest  of  Mexico  by  France, 
is  announced  to  be  the  ascendency  of  the  Latin  race,  and 
the  restoration  of  the  Church  of  Rome  to  its  ancient  honor 
and  power  in  the  country.  The  confiscation  already  begun 
of  the  estates  of  all  Mexicans  guilty  of  the  crime  of  sup- 
porting their  own  constitutional  government,  will  prepare 
the  way  for  the  restoration  of  the  estates  of  the  Church, 
valued  at  a  hundred  millions  of  dollars,  heretofore  seques- 
tered for  the  uses  of  the  state. 

"  In  former  days,  the  civilized  world  has  been  accustomed 
to  rel}^  for  protection  against  any  unwarrantable  aggressions 
of  Home,  upon  the  vigilance  and  strength  of  the  two  great 
Protestant  Powers,  Prussia  and  England.  And  it  is  a  most 
unfortunate  coincidence,  that  just  at  this  time,  when  the 
Papal  Power  is  so  rapidly  consolidating  itself,  Prussia  is 
well  nigh  powerless  for  any  good  purpose,  by  the  insensate 
relapse  of  the  present  monarch  into  the  wildest  madness  of 
absolutism ;  while  the  government  of  England  is  under  the 
administration  of  a  chief  who  seems  to  have  become  practi- 
cally, but  a  mere  satrap  of  Louis  IlTapoleon.  Mr.  Kinglake, 
in  his  remarkable  volume   on  the  Crimean  "War,  before 


teachers,  the  books,  the  instructions  imparted,  &c.,  &c.,  [the  provisions  are 
given  in  a  very  condensed  form],  shall  be  submitted  to  the  decision  of  the 
bishops. 

"  3.  Government  will  give  its  powerful  patronage  and  support  to  the  bishops 
in  their  resistance  to  the  evil  designs  of  wicked  persons,  Ac. 

^'4.  All  matrimonial  causes,  and  all  those  which  concern  the  faith,  the  sacra- 
ments, the  public  morals,  &c.,  are  placed  under  the  sole  jurisdiction  of  the 
ecclesiastical  tribunals,  and  the  civil  magistrates  shall  be  charged  to  carry 
them  into  execution.  The  priests  shall  confine  themselves  to  consulting  the 
lay  judges,  if  they  think  proper  to  do  so. 

"  6.  The  privileges  of  churches  [the  ancient  right  of  asylum  is  consecrated 
buildings]  shall  be  fully  respected." 

The  Philadelphia  Catholic  Herald  and  Visitor,  August  5th,  exults  : 

"  A  most  satisfactory  Concordat  has  been  concluded  between  the  Holy  See  and 
the  Republic  of  Ecuador,  in  South  America.  In  that  exclusively  Catholic 
country,  the  public  exercise  of  no  other  worship  than  the  Catholic  is  to  he  allowed. 
The  uxshops  are  to  have  the  control  of  the  education  of  youth,  and  to  propose  three 
candidates  for  the  vacant  episcopal  sees  to  the  selection  of  the  President  and  of 
the  Pope.  No  Exequatur,  no  Piedmontism,  no  Gallicanism,  no  shortcomings. 
The  Hispano-American  population,  in  the  State  of  Ecuador,  mean  to  he  truly 
and  generous^  Catholic  I" 


REMOTER  CAUSES  OF  THE  PRESENT  POLICY  OF  FRANCE.        75 

referred  to,  has  described  the  process  by  which  Great  Britain 
was  drawn,  wholly  beyond  her  intentions  and  against  her 
interests,  into  that  most  bootless  conflict.  And  there  is  no 
reason  to  expect  that  the  same  fallacious  entente  cordials 
will  not  be  made  available  to  draw  her  onward,  nolens 
volens,  into  whatever  ulterior  national  embroilments  the 
conquest  of  Mexico  may  lead  to,  in  the  interest  of  Popery 
and  Absolutism. 

"  But  the  Monroe  Doctrine  is  not  dead.  It  will  not  die, 
for  truth  never  dies,  and  the  Monroe  Doctrine  is  an  axio- 
matic truth  in  political  science.  It  is  as  true  now  as  it 
was  when  Washington  issued  his  Farewell  Address,  that 
<  Europe  has  a  set  of  primary  interests,  which  to  us  have 
none  or  a  very  remote  relation.  Hence  she  must  be  engaged 
in  frequent  controversies,  the  causes  of  which  are  essentially 
foreign  to  our  concerns.'  It  is  as  true  now  as  it  was  when 
Mr.  Monroe  issued  his  Declaration,  that  '  any  attempt  on 
the  part  of  European  powers  to  extend  their  system  to  any 
portion  of  this  hemisphere,'  IS  '  dangerous  to  our  peace  and 
safety.'  And  we  of  this  day  have  been  brought  at  length 
by  the  cogent  force  of  events,  to  see  as  clearly  as  that  golden 
administration  saw,  that  *  any  interposition '  with  any  of  the 
American  nations,  *  by  any  European  power,'  for  the  pur- 
pose of '  controlling  their  destiny,'  IS  '  the  manifestation  of 
an  unfriendly  disposition  towards  the  United  States.'  Those 
who  have  doubted,  now  see  it  plainly.  The  efforts  for  forty 
years,  of  selfish  partisans,  of  timid  statesmen,  of  political 
sciolists,  of  venal  scribblers,  or  of  covert  reactionaries,  to 
make  it  out  that  the  Monroe  Doctrine  was  a  brutum  fulmen, 
which  struck  no  blow  and  made  no  mark,  and  then  vanished 
into  thin  air,  are  all  blown  to  the  winds.  The  clouds  which 
temporarily  shrouded  it  from  general  view,  have  been  rolled 
away  by  the  winds  from  the  South-west,  and  the  Doctrine 
shines  forth  as  the  political  cynosure  by  which  we  are  to 
steer  our  national  course  through  this  sea  of  difficulties, 
until  the  Imperial  Republic  shall  resume  her  place  among 
the  nations,  as  a  light  to  oppressed  millions,  and  the  political 
regenerator  of  the  world." 


76       REMOTER  CAUSES  OF  THE  PRESENT  POLICY  OF  FRANCE. 

"  What  is  next  to  be  done,  is  not  for  us  to  prescribe.  By 
what  steps  or  through  what  struggles  on  our  part  the  Mon- 
roe Doctrine  is  to  be  restored  to  its  ancient  respect  in  the 
counsels  of  European  dynasties,  will  depend  more  upon  the 
wishes  of  those  Powers  than  on  our  own.  The  United 
States  long  ago  reached  that  condition  of  conscious  strength 
anticipated  by  Washington,  when  under  any  European 
intrusion  'we  may  choose  peace  or  war,  as  our  interest, 
guided  by  our  justice,  shall  counsel.'  Should  the  European 
Powers  receive  the  lessons  of  our  recent  successes,  and 
speedily  withdraw  their  criminal  aggressions  on  a  neighbor- 
ing republic,  thus  paying  their  old  homage  to  the  Monroe 
Doctrine,  that  is  well.  Should  they  make  open  war  upon 
us,  we  shall  meet  them  as  best  we  may,  notwithstanding 
our  embarrassments  with  the  rebellion.  Such  a  country  as 
this,  inhabited  by  such  a  people,  and  blessed  with  such 
institutions  and  such  a  history,  is  worth  a  struggle  of  a 
hundred  years  against  the  world  in  arms,  before  we  allow 
the  Political  System  of  Europe  to  be  extended  over  us  by  all 
the  military  force  that  can  be  brought  against  us.  Should 
they  merely  continue  their  intrusions  and  impertinencies, 
we  can  afford  to  consult  our  own  convenience,  and  choose 
our  own  time  for  appealing  to  the  last  resort  of  injured 
nations  for  redress  of  the  wrong. 

"  And  if  the  European  Powers  should  see  fit  to  press  the 
matter  to  its  ultimate  issue,  we  shall  not  shrink  from  our 
proper  responsibility,  as  a  free  people  and  the  friends  of  free 
institutions.  And  the  Powers  may  be  sure  that  we  shall 
not  stand  wholly  on  the  defensive.  We  will  say  no  word 
and  do  no  act  implying  an  admission  that  the  Political  Sys- 
tem of  America  is  less  honorable  than  that  of  Europe,  or 
less  true,  or  less  beneficent,  or  less  worthy  of  heroic  sacrifices 
in  its  cause,  or  less  deserving  of  universal  adoption.  The 
question  will  then  lie  between  the  European  System  for 
America,  and  the  American  System  for  Europe,  If,  by 
their  machinations  or  aggressions,  we  are  once  involved  in 
their  conflicts  against  our  will,  there  will  be  no  more  peace 
for  us  or  for  them,  until  the  American  ideas  of  national 


EEMOTER  CAUSES  OP  THE  PRESENT  POLICY  OF  FRANCE.   77 

independence  and  responsibility  have  been  spread  over  the 
countries  of  the  Old  World,  and  the  doctrines  of  national 
interference  and  the  Balance  of  Power  have  been  cast  among 
the  rubbish  with  the  systems  of  absolutism  and  popular 
ignorance  which  they  were  devised  to  support.  And  let 
God  give  the  victory  to  the  right !" 

"With  the  statement  of  these  general  views  we  shall  be 
better  prepared  to  follow  France  intelligently  in  her  direct 
struggle  with  England  for  colonial  and  commercial  supre- 
macy. l!Tear  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  when 
the  power  of  Louis  XIY.  was  at  its  heighth,  France  had 
nearly  reached  the  position  which  she  held  under  Charle- 
magne. The  French  Monarch  assumed  the  attitude  of 
Judge  and  Dictator  of  Europe.  The  French  navy  was  then 
the  most  formidable  in  the  world,  numbering  no  less  than 
one  hundred  ships  of  the  line,  in  addition  to  the  usual 
proportion  of  smaller  vessels. 

From  this  point  the  power  of  France  again  declined,  and 
at  the  close  of  the  long  exhaustive  war,  which  ended  with 
the  peace  of  Aix  La  Chapelle,  she  had  no  longer  the  power 
to  carry  on  a  great  conflict,  and  her  once  formidable  navy 
had  been  completely  ruined.  She  was  anxious  for  peace, 
in  order  that  she  might  renew  her  strength  for  another 
effort  to  control  the  world.  At  the  very  time  when  she 
was  negotiating  the  peace  of  Aix  La  Chapelle,  she  was 
already  forming  her  plans  for  future  aggressions.  The 
commercial  idea,  as  Bancroft  has  stated,  had  become  about 
that  time  the  leading  one  in  European  policy ;  and  it  was 
clearly  seen  that  whatever  nation  should  control  the  trade 
of  the  East,  in  connection  with  extensive  colonies,  would 
become  the  centre  of  power  for  Europe.  Acting  upon  this 
idea,  France  formed  the  design  of  obtaining  for  herself  vast 
colonial  possessions,  both  in  the  East  and  West,  and  as  a 
necessary  part  of  the  plan,  began  at  once  with  great  vigor, 
and  on  a  large  scale,  the  reconstruction  of  her  navy. 

M.  Dupleix  was  at  this  time  Governor  of  Pondicherry,  a 
trading  post  which  the  French  then  held  in  India,  and  he 


78       KEMOTER  CAUSES  OF  THE  PRESENT  POLICY  OF  FRANCE. 

urged  upon  France  to  possess  herself  of  the  whole  of  Hin- 
dostan,  and  then  make  that  a  base  of  operations  for  the 
subjugation  of  all  Eastern  Asia,  and  make  it  a  colonial 
empire  subject  to  the  French  crown. 

The  magnificence  of  this  conception  is  well  attested  by 
the  manner  in  which  the  dazzling  project  has  been  executed 
by  Great  Britain — and  it  shows,  also,  the  largeness  of  the 
ambition  of  which  the  French  mind  is  capable. 

Galissioniere,  who  was  then  Governor  of  Canada,  pro- 
posed to  his  Government  a  scheme  of  conquest  in  America 
of  equal  grandeur.  This  was  no  less  a  project  than  to  draw 
a  military  cordon  around  the  English  colonies,  from  the 
St.  Lawrence  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  and  thus 
confine  at  the  outset  these  colonies  to  a  narrow  strip  on  the 
Atlantic,  then  gradually  expel  them  from  the  continent, 
and  place  America  permanently  in  the  hands  of  the  Latin 
race  and  Papal  church,  France  holding  the  !N"orth,  and 
Spain  the  South  of  the  Western  world. 

Almost  immediately  after  the  peace  of  Aix  La  Chapelle, 
in  1748,  France  engaged  in  the  most  active  measures  for 
carrying  out  these  great  designs  by  which  she  hoped  to 
cripple  the  power  of  England,  and  make  herself  mistress 
of  Europe  and  the  world.  In  both  hemispheres  she  began 
aggressive  movements  that  were  intended  to  lead  to  war. 

In  India  M.  Dupleix  began  that  system  which  England 
has  so  successfully  practiced  since,  of  intriguing  among  the 
native  princes,  espousing  the  quarrel  of  one  party  for  the 
purpose  of  weakening  and  plundering  both.  He  conceived 
the  idea  of  controlling  India  by  procuring  for  France  the 
appointment  of  princes  for  the  provinces,  and  was  himself 
appointed  l^abob  of  the  Carnatic,  a  valuable  province  in 
the  Eastern  part  of  Ilindostan. 

By  various  arts,  and  acts  of  violence,  the  French  posses- 
sions in  India  were  rapidly  extended,  until  they  held  the 
Eastern  or  Coromandel  coast  for  six  hundred  miles.  At 
this  point,  the  progress  of  the  French  in  India  was  arrested 
by  the  English  through  the  genius  of  Captain,  afterwards 
Lord  Clive,  who  first  established  the  British  Empire  in  the 


REMOTER  CAUSES  OF  THE  PRESENT  POLICY  OF  FRANCE.   79 

East  on  a  firm  foundation — and  opened  one  of  the  darkest 
chapters  in  all  human  history,  if  England's  own  witnesses 
are  worthy  of  belief. 

The  attempt  of  Dupleix  was  only  the  carrying  out  of  an 
idea  which  long  before  occupied  the  French  mind,  and  the 
leaders  of  the  Papal  church.  He  whom  history  has  named 
the  great  Colbert,  the  leading  statesman  of  the  early  part 
of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIY.,  had  established  an  East  Indian 
Company  at  Pondicherry  in  1664,  nearly  an  hundred  years 
before  Dupleix's  time.  At  the  same  time  he  created  a  navy, 
which  made  France  for  the  time  the  first  maritime  power 
of  the  world.  His  intentions  were  exactly  the  same  with 
those  of  Dupleix  and  the  French  statesmen  of  his  time; 
the  same  with  those  of  ISTapoleon,  when  he  made  such 
gigantic  efforts  to  crush  the  naval  power  of  England,  and 
by  the  possession  of  Egypt  and  Syria  to  control  for  himself 
the  commerce  of  the  East,  the  same  which  governs  the 
whole  policy  of  Louis  ^N'apoleon  now. 

Leading  ideas  control  the  movements  of  nations  for  cen- 
turies, and  the  battle  of  the  ages  is  continually  renewed. 
France,  age  after  age,  struggles  to  realize  the  French  idea 
of  the  political  and  ecclesiastical  supremacy  of  Europe  and 
the  world.  The  political  and  the  religious  have  not  always 
been  obviously  united,  and  France  has  even  for  a  time  been 
guided  by  the  irreligious,  the  infidel  sentiment.  Still  the 
Papacy,  with  a  brief  exception,  has  been  ever  a  power  in 
the  State ;  and  now  Louis  Napoleon  bases  his  grand  move- 
ment upon  the  af&nities  and  prejudices  of  race,  and  upon 
the  revived  ambition  and  superstitions  of  the  Latin  Church. 
It  has,  therefore,  become  the  widest  and  most  dangerous 
movement  of  modern  times. 

The  enterprize,  the  zeal,  the  activity  of  the  Papal  church, 
and  its  power,  is  well  illustrated  by  its  movements  in  the  East. 
A  hundred  years  before  France  had  made  any  important 
settlements  in  India,  the  missionaries  of  the  Latin  church 
were  traversing  India  and  China  with  a  heroic  daring  and 
endurance  of  hardship,  unmatched  since  the  days  of  Paul, 
they  spread  every  where  in  the  East  such  knowledge  of 


80        REMOTER  CAUSES  OF  THE  PRESENT  POLICY  OF  FRANCE. 

Christ  as  they  had  themselves,  their  zeal  for  God  apparently 
bounded  by  the  one  idea  of  extending  the  dominions  of  the 
Pope,  and  salvation  being  in  their  view  secured  by  baptism 
into  the  communion  of  the  Papal  church. 

But  whatever  their  motives,  their  enterprise  and  their 
enthusiasm  were  both  boundless..  ITothing  seemed  too 
great  to  attempt,  or  too  difficult  to  perform.  Such  mis- 
sionaries as  Zavier  defied  all  dangers,  whether  from  heat, 
or  deserts,  or  pestilence,  or  wild  beasts,  or  hostile  men. 
These  operations  show  us  the  prodigious  power  of  religious 
enthusiasm,  and  history  informs  us  how  well  the  Pomish 
church  understands  its  nature  and  its  use.  It  is  this  power 
to  which  the  leaders  of  the  Papacy,  in  union  with  the 
statesmen  and  Emperor  of  France,  intend  to  appeal  in  their 
present  designs.  The  ancient  supremacy  of  the  Pomish 
church,  the  former  prestige  and  strength  of  the  Latin  race, 
the  glory  of  France,  these  form  the  spell  words  with  which 
Louis  I^apoleon's  Jesuits  hope  to  rouse  the  Catholic  nations 
of  Europe,  and  unite  them  under  France  as  Imperial  Head. 
Thus  are  the  schemes  of  to-day  connected  with  those  of 
the  past. 

For  more  than  half  a  century,  from  the  landing  of  Clive 
in  India  till  the  fall  of  Bonaparte,  the  contest  was  carried 
on  for  the  possession  of  the  East,  but  France  was  unsuc- 
cessful, and  forced  back  at  all  points,  and  the  final  result 
left  her  with  only  an  inconsiderable  territory  around  Pon- 
dicherry,  while  England  rules  over  one  hundred  and  fifty 
millions  of  East  Indian  subjects. 

France,  however,  as  we  shall  see,  has  not  abandoned  the 
idea  of  dominion  in  the  East.  Her  plan  for  possessing  her- 
self of  l^orth  America,  and  for  securing  all  America  for  the 
Latin  race,  ani  Papal  church,  was  as  vast  as  the  one  she 
formed  for  India.  In  the  exploration  of  the  "Western  Con- 
tinent, the  missionary  operations  of  the  church  had  preceded 
the  march  of  armies,  and  the  progress  of  commerce — as  they 
had  also  done  in  India.  With  the  leaders  of  the  Papacy, 
territory  is  sought  only  to  extend  the  dominion  of  the  Pope 
and  the  church,  and  with  the  newly  awakening  zeal  of 


EEMOTER  CAUSES  OF  THE  PRESENT  POLICY  OF  FRANCE.   81 

Romanism  as  a  stimulant,  it  is  easy  to  foresee  what  would 
follow  the  establishment  of  French  supremacy  on  this 
"Western  Continent. 

At  least  a  hundred  years  before  the  American  Revolution, 
the  Jesuit  Missionaries  were  busy  around  the  Lakes  and  in 
the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi.  They  had  followed  the  great 
lakes  to  Superior,  they  had  gone  on  southward  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi, and  their  stations  were  planted  on  the  banks  of  the 
Ohio.  From  Quebec  to  New  Orleans,  the  whole  West  has 
been  one  great  Missionary  field  for  the  Church  of  Rome 
nearly  two  hundred  years  ago,  and  it  is  not  strange  perhaps, 
that  the  Catholic  Powers  should  often  consider  whether  it 
is  possible  for  them  to  recover  again  this  lost  dominion  of 
the  West. 

The  French  plan  for  the  military  occupation  of  l!Torth 
America  embraced  a  series  of  fortified  posts,  extending  from 
Louisburg  on  the  Atlantic  coast  westward,  to  Quebec  and 
Montreal,  and  along  the  great  lakes,  and  then  southward 
to  New  Orleans.  Besides  this  general  line,  there  were  some 
strong  positions  on  Lake  Champlain,  and  in  the  upper  por- 
tion of  the  Valley  of  the  Mohawk,  and  on  the  upper  waters 
of  the  Ohio. 

The  immediate  effect  of  this  chain  of  forts  was  to  confine 
the  English  to  the  Atlantic  coast,  rendering  the  expansion 
of  the  colonies  westward  impossible;  the  ultimate  result  of 
the  scheme,  had  it  proved  successful,  would  have  been,  to 
expel  from  America  the  English,  and  the  Protestant  Church 
together. 

In  the  progress  of  the  war  which  followed  these  encroach- 
ments of  France,  she  was  driven  from  all  these  positions  in 
rapid  succession,  till  on  the  plains  of  Abraham,  Montcalm, 
in  dying,  yielded  virtually  to  Great  Britain  all  that  France 
possessed  in  America,  with  the  exception  of  New  Orleans. 
This  at  length  was  ceded  by  Napoleon  to  the  United  States,^ 
and  thus  the  colonial  empire  of  France,  both  in  India  and 
America,  vanished,  leaving  only  a  little  patch  of  territory 
in  India,  and  some  insignificant  islands  in  the  West  Indian 
group. 


82        REMOTER  CAUSES  OP  THE  PRESENT  POLICY  OF  FRANCE. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  which  ended  with  the  fall  of 
Bonaparte,  France  found  herself  stripped  of  her  vast  colo- 
nial possessions,  which  were  all  in  the  hands  of  the  Power 
she  hated,  and  feared  more  than  all  others — and  by  that 
same  ancient  enemy  her  navy  had  been  utterly  ruined. 
France  was  a  mortified,  defeated,  and  weakened  Power,  but 
she  was  not  utterly  discouraged.  She  accepted  such  a  peace 
as  was  granted,  and  with  bitter  memories  and  meditated 
revenge,  she  silently  bided  her  time.  She  had  played  a 
stupendous  and  bloody  game  for  the  control  of  the  com- 
merce and  manufactures  of  the  world,  and  with  her  the 
Romish  church  had  attempted  to  extend  the  Papacy  in  all 
lands,  and  both  had  utterly  failed. 

Protestant  England  was  the  dominant  power  in  all  the 
earth,  her  navy  had  complete  command  of  all  seas,  her 
commerce  was  the  commerce  of  the  world,  and  London  was 
the  great  money  centre  of  Christendom. 

But  mighty  nations  do  not  abandon  a  traditional  policy, 
a  national  idea,  because  of  severe  defeat.  They  simply 
pause  to  recruit  their  strength — and  such  a  people  as  the 
French,  fertile  in  resource,  energetic,  and  proud,  recover 
very  rapidly  even  from  extreme  disaster.  In  less  than  a 
century  after  the  surrender  of  her  E^orth  American  posses- 
sions, forty-five  }' ears  after  the  battle  of  Trafalgar,  in  which 
her  navy  was  annihilated,  and  thirty -five  years  after  "Water- 
loo, where  her  military  power  was  broken,  France  was 
prepared  to  renew  tlie  contest  for  the  control  of  Europe 
and  the  world. 

The  French,  through  the  period  of  their  humiliation,  could 
scarcely  name  "Waterloo,  or  think  of  St.  Helena,  without  an 
execration  for  England,  and  breathing  a  desire  for  vengeance. 
Actively  and  steadily  she  gathered  her  resources,  improved 
her  army,  and  enlarged  her  navy,  and  England  soon  began 
to  be  uneasy  at  the  rapid  progress  of  her  formidable  neigh- 
bor. France  at  this  time  had  been  placed  permanently 
under  the  control  of  Louis  Napoleon.  The  designs  of  th^ 
new  Emperor  none  then  could  penetrate,  but  it  was  quite 
evident  from  his  military  and  naval  preparations,  that  he 


REMOTER  CAUSES  OF  THE  PRESENT  POLICY  OF  FRANCE.        83 

intended  that  France  should  play  no  inferior  part  among 
the  nations  of  Europe.  This  brings  us  to  consider  the  posi- 
tion of  the  great  powers  of  the  world  just  previous  to  the 
Anglo-French  Alliance;  and  it  is  hoped  that  this  rapid 
review  of  French  policy  for  a  hundred  years,  will  enable  us 
to  understand  the  nature  and  objects  of  this  unexpected 
compact. 


84      CONDITION  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  RUSSIA  AND  AMERICA, 


CHAPTER    VIII. 


CONDITION  OF  ENGLAND,   FRANCE,   RUSSIA  AND  AMERICA,  WHEN  THE 
ANGLO-FRENCH  ALLIANCE  WAS  FORMED. 


Mr.  Kinglake,  in  "The  Invasion  of  the  Crimea,"  com- 
ments with  great  severity  upon  the  Alliance  with  France, 
as  the  one  step  which  rendered  inevitable  a  war  with  Russia, 
which  might  otherwise  have  been  avoided.  He  says  that 
the  French  Emperor  subordinated  all  other  considerations 
to  the  plan  of  forming  with  England  a  combination  against 
Eussia.  In  studying  the  policy  of  France  it  is  very  import- 
ant to  remember  this  fact.  France  originated  the  war 
against  Russia,  and  it  began  in  a  quarrel  between  the  Latin 
and  Greek  Churches  about  the  holy  places  at  Jerusalem, 
which  was  carefully  nursed  by  France  into  a  cause  of  war, 
as  will  hereafter  be  made  to  appear,  while  England  with 
alacrity  accepted  the  proposal  of  France  to  attack  Russia. 
But  England  had  motives  of  her  own. 

Mr.  Kinglake  seems  to  think  that  the  prominent  motive 
of  Louis  IS'apoleon  in  seeking  the  Alliance  was  to  gain 
support  and  recognition  for  that  throne  which  he  had  so 
lately  set  up  with  perfidy  and  in  the  blood  of  his  country- 
men, and  he  presents  no  very  satisfactory  reasons  for  the 
course  of  England. 

Events  have  shown  already,  and  will  yet  more  clearly 
reveal  the  real  intentions  of  these  two  powers  in  forming 
that  strange  agreement,  in  which,  without  sufllcient  osten- 
sible reasons,  they  suddenly  abandoned  the  policy  which  for 


WHEN  THE  ANGLO-FRENCH  ALLIANCE  WAS  FORMED.  85 

centuries  they  had  pursued  towards  each  other,  and  all  the 
humiliations  and  resentments  of  France  were  apparently 
forgot. 

At  this  point  Mr.  Kinglake  makes  a  statement  in  regard 
to  the  temper  of  his  countrymen,  which  it  would  be  wise 
for  those  Americans  to  consider,  who  think  that  the  good 
feeling,  the  kindly  sympathies  of  England,  may  be  relied 
upon  hereafter,  if  only  soothing,  friendly  words  are  used  by 
us,  or  who  hope  that  such  men  as  Mr.  Cobden  and  Mr. 
Bright  can  stay  the  tide  of  British  violence  and  passion 
when  once  the  cry  is  war.  After  showing  that  the  war  was 
brought  on  by  France,  and  that  England  was  easily  induced 
to  join  her,  he  says : 

"Welcome  or  unwelcome,  the  truth  must  be  told.  A 
"  large  obstacle  to  the  maintenance  of  peace  in  Europe  was 
"the  temper  of  the  English  people.  In  public,  men  still 
"used  forms  of  expression  implying  that  they  would  be 
"  content  for  England  to  lead  a  quiet  life  among  the  nations, 
"  and  they  still  classed  expectations  of  peace  among  their 
"hopes,  and  declared  in  joyous  tones  that  the  prospects  of 
"  war  were  glaring  and  painful ;  but  these  phrases  were  the 
"time-honored  canticles  of  a  doctrine  already  discarded. 
"  The  English  people  desired  war ;  and  perhaps  it  ought  to 
"  be  acknowledged  that  there  were  many  to  whom  war,  for 
"  the  sake  of  war,  was  no  longer  a  hateful  thought."  Again 
he  says:  "All  whose  volitions  were  governed  by  the  ima- 
"gined  freeing  of  Poland,  or  destroying  Cronstadt  and 
"  lording  it  with  our  flag  in  the  Baltic ;  or  taking  command 
"  of  the  Euxine,  and  sinking  the  E-ussian  fleet  under  the 
"  guns  of  Sebastopol ;  all  who  meant  to  raise  Circassia,  and 
"  cut  off  the  Muscovite  from  the  glowing  South,  by  holding 
"  the  Dariel  Pass,  and  those  also  who  dwelt  in  fancy  upon 
"  the  deeds  to  be  done  on  the  shores  of  the  Caspian ;  all 
"  these  and  many  more  saw  plainly  enough  that  separation 
"from  the  Grerman  Powers,  and  alliance  with  the  new 
"  Bonaparte,  was  the  only  road  to  adventure."  The  English 
people  were  eager  for  war,  for  the  sake  of  war,  for  the  sake 
of  adventure — eager  to  strike  down  a  power  that  had  helped 


86      CONDITION  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  RUSSIA  AND  AMERICA, 

to  save  her  from  IN'apoleon,  a  power  that  had  not  harmed 
her,  and  that  meditated  no  attack. 

Connect  this  statement  with  the  late  picture  of  that  same 
English  people  furious  with  passion  over  the  affair  of  the 
Trent,  shouting  with  joy  over  the  flames  of  our  vessels  fired 
by  pirates  fitted  out  in  their  own  harbors,  and  it  may  easily 
be  seen  what  safety  there  is  in  depending  upon  the  kind 
feeling  of  England — even  of  the  English  people.  In  dealing 
with  England,  our  iron  clads  and  Parrott  rifles,  and  fifteen- 
inch  guns,  will  be  found  more  convincing  arguments  than 
the  most  good  natured  and  eloquent  words. 

But  the  French  Emperor  and  English  statesmen  were  not 
moved  by  passion  in  forming  the  Alliance,  or  in  the  Crimean 
war.  What  then  were  the  true  reasons  by  which  the  two 
nations  were  governed?  To  answer  this  question,  it  is 
necessary  to  study  the  condition  of  France,  England,  Rus- 
sia and  America,  at  the  time  when  the  Alliance  was  formed, 
and  the  attack  on  E-ussia  w^as  made. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  in  1815,  when  the  Allied  armies 
entering  Paris,  England  occupied  the  proudest  position  in 
Europe.  Both  in  India  and  America  she  had  stripped 
France  of  vast  colonial  possessions ;  in  fact,  to  quote  the 
words  of  Alison,  "  During  the  course  of  this  long  struggle, 
"  the  colonies  of  all  the  European  States  successively  fell 
"  into  the  hands  of  England." 

She  had  utterly  destroyed  tne  French  maritime  power, 
and  with  it  her  commerce,  and  Wellington  at  Waterloo 
crushed  the  military  idol  of  France  and  with  him  her  army. 
The  navy  of  England  was  supreme  every  where,  and  with 
her  immense  colonial  territories,  her  navy,  and  her  moral 
power,  she  was  well  prepared  to  rule  for  a  time  the  world. 
She  saw  very  clearly  the  necessities  of  her  position.  She 
understood  both  her  strength  and  her  weakness.  She  knew 
that  she  could  not  remain  permanently  the  chief  military 
power  of  Europe,  and  that  she  must  rule  the  nations,  if  at 
all,  through  her  capital,  her  machinery,  and  her  ships.  If 
she  could  draw  from  all  countries  the  raw  material  for  her 
work-shops  and  her  looms,  and  sell  in  all  markets  her 


WHE^T  THE  ANGLO-FRENCH  ALLIANCE  WAS  FORMED.  87 

manufactured  fabrics,  securing  for  herself  the  profits  of  her 
labor,  her  capital  and  machinery,  and  the  carrying  trade  to 
her  ships,  then  indeed  all  nations  would  become  tributary 
to  her.  She  pressed  this  scheme  of  aggrandizement  in  all 
lands  to  the  full  extent  of  her  power,  and  far  and  near,  her 
policy  was  crowned  with  a  success  that  was  equal  to  her 
ambition. 

Her  policy  was  to  repress  and  destroy  all  commerce  and 
manufactures  except  her  own,  and  she  found  the  South 
ready  to  aid  her  in  any  free  trade  scheme  which  would 
prevent  the  growth  of  manufactures  or  commerce  in  the 
free  States,  while  many  of  the  smaller  States  of  Europe 
were  merely  factors  of  the  merchants  and  mill  owners  of 
England,  so  that  the  wealth  of  the  world  flowed  towards 
that  small  island  as  the  rivers  to  the  ocean. 

In  the  meantime,  as  has  been  stated,  France  was  recover- 
ing from  defeat  and  exhaustion,  and  when  Louis  l!^apoleon 
seized  the  throne,  grave  apprehensions  began  to  fill  the 
English  mind — nor  was  this  anxiety  without  sufiicient  cause. 

N^o  sooner  did  the  new  monarch  feel  himself  secure,  than 
it  was  apparent  that  the  one  purpose  which  guided  all  his 
movements  was  to  make  France,  in  the  shortest  possible 
time,  the  leading  military  and  naval  power  of  Europe. 
The  attention  which  was  given  to  the  enlargement,  organi- 
zation and  discipline  of  the  army,  the  artillery  studies  of 
the  Emperor — and  above  all,  the  gigantic  scale  of  his  naval 
preparations,  showed  very  clearly  the  intentions  of  the  new 
ruler  of  France.  Europe  at  first  looked  on  puzzled  and 
amazed.  That  France  should  become  powerful,  a  European 
leader  under  such  a  man  as  Louis  I^apoleon,  was  deemed 
an  impossible  thing. 

But  as  proofs  of  consummate  ability  in  the  guidance  of 
French  affairs  began  to  multiply,  and  her  military  and 
naval  power  assumed  grander  proportions,  as  immense 
navy  yards  and  fortifications  began  to  menace  the  coast  of 
Britain,  English  statesmen,  in  view  of  the  past,  had  good 
reason  for  anxiety,  if  not  for  alarm. 

It  certainly  was  quite  possible  that  France  was  preparing 


88      CONDITION  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  RUSSIA  AND  AMERICA, 

to  avenge  herself  for  the  humiliations  of  centuries.  It  was 
certain  that  a  Bonaparte  was  on  her  throne,  an  ardent 
admirer  of  that  uncle  who  had  made  the  conquest  or 
humbling  of  England  one  of  the  chief  purposes  of  his  life, 
and  that  uncle  had  not  only  been  defeated  by  England,  but 
she  had  mercilessly  chained  him  to  a  rock,  and  shutting  out 
all  succor,  left  him  there  to  die. 

France  had  not  forgotten,  much  less  had  the  nephew  for- 
gotten or  forgiven.  ]^ow  that  nephew  wielded  the  power 
of  France,  his  army  was  superior  to  any  thing  which  England 
could  command,  and  her  navy  was  only  the  second  in  the 
world.  Well  might  Englishmen  inquire,  how  will  this 
power  be  used  ?  What  purpose  has  this  new  Bonaparte  in 
these  vast  preparations?  What  can  he  intend,  unless  to 
carry  out  the  policy  of  his  uncle  in  the  invasion  of  England, 
and  to  revenge  France  and  his  family  for  national  defeat, 
and  especially  for  St.  Helena  and  Waterloo.  Those  who 
remember  the  tone  of  the  English  Press  at  this  period,  know 
well  how  deeply  the  English  nation  was  moved,  even  alarmed 
at  the  menacing  attitude  of  France,  from  whom  came  no 
threatening  word,  but  whose  sphynx-like  mystery  was  a 
source  of  terror,  while  especially  at  her  great  naval  stations 
opposite  England,  the  hum  of  preparation  continually 
sounded. 

What  could  this  warlike  activity  mean,  unless  a  sudden 
attack  upon  England  was  meditated  ?  Between  France  and 
all  other  powers  there  seemed  no  cause  for  war.  But  the 
preparations  and  growing  power  of  France  were  not  the 
only  causes  which  created  uneasiness  in  England.  Her 
supremacy  had  become  a  commercial  rather  than  a  military 
one,  notwithstanding  the  immense  strength  of  her  navy, 
and  it  was  necessary  for  her  if  she  would  rule  the  world,  to 
retain  her  markets,  to  prevent,  if  possible,  the  growth  of 
commercial  rivals,  and  to  secure  the  colonial  possessions 
which  she  had  wrested  from  others.  As  she  surveyed  the 
world,  an  eastern  and  a  western  vision  troubled  her. 
Hitherto  Russia  had  been  regarded  as  a  mere  military, 
barbarian  Colossus,  whose  joints  were  not  well  compacted, 


WHEN  THE  ANGLO-FRENCH  ALLIANCE  WAS  FORMED.  89 

composed  of  heterogeneous  materials,  that  could  not  be 
united  in  one  true,  organic,  political  structure,  with  a  com- 
mon life,  which  would  insure  a  regular  and  healthy  growth. 

But  Russia,  under  Mcholas,  began  to  give  signs  that  she 
was  more  than  a  mere  barbarian  camp,  more  than  a  nation 
of  serfs  and  wandering  Tartars.  She  gave  evidence  of  a 
true  national  life,  of  enlargement,  which  was  growth  from 
a  national  life  centre.  Under  many  disadvantages  the  Rus- 
sian Emperor  was  striving  to  give  his  country  the  means 
of  independent  self-development,  and  was  laboring  to  estab- 
lish manufactures  and  internal  commerce,  and  to  make 
profitable  use  of  the  great  resources  of  his  empire.  He  was 
establishing  schools  for  his  people,  literary,  and  agricultural, 
as  well  as  military,  opening  roads,  projecting  railways  and 
canals,  and  putting  steamboats  upon  his  numerous  rivers. 

He  was  improving  his  navy  and  his  mercantile  marine, 
and  in  all  his  operations  he  seemed  to  prefer  American 
mechanics,  and  American  machinery,  a  fact  which,  of  course, 
did  not  escape  the  watchful  eye  of  England. 

He  had  constructed  a  large  fleet  upon  the  Black  Sea,  and 
its  fortified  rendezvous,  Sebastopol,  was  only  a  few  hours 
sail  from  Constantinople ;  Turkey,  unless  defended  by  other 
powers,  was  apparently  within  reach  of  the  Czar,  and  once 
in  possession  of  Constantinople,  Russia  would  have  the 
means  not  only  of  becoming  a  great  military  power,  but 
she  would  certainly  be  a  first  class  manufacturing  and  com- 
mercial nation. 

Russia,  moreover,  had  already  extended  the  outposts  of 
dominion  far  on  eastward,  from  the  Black  Sea  along  the 
Caucasus,  and  the  northern  frontier  of  Persia,  and  England 
saw,  that  if  Turkey  were  overgrown,  even  the  peaceful 
march  of  Russia  eastward,  would  bring  her  at  no  distant 
date  to  the  borders  of  her  Indian  possessions.  The  English 
Press  at  this  time  was  complaining,  as  if  it  were  ill-treat- 
ment of  Great  Britain  and  Europe,  that  Russia  was  planting 
vineyards  in  the  Crimea  with  the  intention  of  making  her 
own  wine,  and  that  she  was  multiplying  her  flocks  of  sheep 
for  the  purpose  of  manufacturing  her  own  woolens,  and 


90      CONDITION  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  RUSSIA  AND  AMERICA, 

that  in  general,  she  was  disposed  to  cherish  and  protect  her 
own  workmen,  and  develop  her  own  resources,  instead  of 
following  those  free-trade  doctrines,  which  England  was 
then  proclaiming  to  the  world. 

It  was  apparent  that  by  this  course,  Russia  in  time  would 
not  only  manufacture  to  supply  the  wants  of  her  own  people, 
and  to  this  extent  curtail  the  foreign  markets  for  English 
goods,  but  with  her  boundless  mineral  wealth,  her  great 
facilities  for  internal  trade  by  her  navigable  rivers,  with  the 
control  of  the  Black  Sea,  with  Constantinople,  and  access 
to  the  Mediterranean,  she  might  become  in  all  respects  a 
very  formidable  rival  of  both  England  and  France. 

Russia  proposed  to  sweep  from  her  path  that  usurping 
infidel  power  which  had  crushed  her  mother  church,  con- 
quered her  holy  City  Constantinople,  and  held  in  bondage 
eleven  millions  of  Christians  of  her  own  communion ;  but 
she  meditated  no  attack  upon  any  European  Power,  she 
relied  for  progress  upon  the  normal  development  of  her  own 
[^  national  life.  Her  crime  was,  in  the  opinion  of  France  and 
England,  that  she  was  growing  too  fast.  As  Englishmen 
have  lately  expressed  themselves  in  regard  to  our  own 
nation,  Russia  was  growing  so  strong  that  measures  had  to 
be  taken  to  cripple  her,  "to  take  her  down."  She  had  done 
no  wrong  at  that  time  to  provoke  or  justify  an  attack,  but 
she  was  too  prosperous  to  suit  the  interest  of  England,  and 
Alienee  the  Alliance  and  the  Crimean  war. 
--  At  the  same  time,  England  saw  in  the  West  a  rising 
I  Empire,  whose  marvellous  growth  gave  her  more  anxiety 
I  than  even  the  progress  of  Russia. 

The  population  of  the  United  States  was  almost  equal  to 
her  own.  The  Americans  had  just  obtained  California  and 
the  Pacific  coast,  Texas  had  been  annexed,  Mexico  seemed 
ready  to  fall  into  their  hands,  and  their  commercial  marine 
was  even  then  second  to  none  in  the  world. 

In  spite  of  inadequate  protection,  and  the  combined 
influence  of  the  slave  States  and  England,  American  manu- 
factures were  making  rapid  progress  in  many  departments, 
American  mechanics  were  already  ahead  of  the  world — and 


WHEN  THE  ANGLO-FRENCH  ALLIANCE  WAS  FORMED.  91 

in  all  the  markets  of  tlie  United  States,  Britisli  fabrics  were 
being  rapidly  displaced  by  the  products  of  American  skill. 
English  statesmen  knew  well,  that  a  people  that  could  create 
for  themselves  an  unmatched  fleet  for  commercial  purposes, 
that  had  covered  their  rivers  and  lakes  with  swift  steam- 
boats, could  also  produce  a  navy  with  equal  ease  whenever 
it  should  be  needed,  and  with  resources  of  all  kinds  to  which 
man  could  assign  no  limit,  fronting  on  two  great  oceans, 
what  could  prevent  the  United  States  from  overshadowing 
even  England  with  her  greatness,  unless  indeed,  as  was  said 
to  Mr.  Beecher,  she  could  "be  taken  down." 

The  colonies  of  England  on  the  l!Torth  were  too  weak  to 
resist  their  powerful  neighbors,  and  her  West  Indian  islands 
were  in  dangerous  proximity  to  those  harbors  whence 
American  fleets  might  issue,  and  the  restless  filibustering 
of  the  slave-holders  coveting  new  lands,  was  an  indication 
of  what  might  be  done  if  expeditions  should  be  fitted  out 
with  the  sanction,  and  supported  by  the  power  of  the 
Government.  England  saw  and  dreaded  the  threatening 
preparations  of  France;  Hussia  was  swiftly  rising  in  th^ 
East,  and  America  was  overshadowing  the  West.  ----'' 

It  is  easy  to  see,  therefore,  that  Grreat  Britain  had  been^ 
urged  by  what  appeared  very  pressing  reasons,  to .  accept 
an  Alliance  which  promised  relief  from  a  triple  danger,  an 
attack  from  France,  and  the  too  great  prosperity  of  Russia 
and  America. 
v/  The  motives  by  which  the  French  Emperor  was  induced 
to  seek  the  Alliance  with  England  were  of  a  more  complex 
character.  France  feared  no  attack  from  England,  and  the 
commercial  idea  swayed  her  because  commercial  greatness 
had  become  the  foundation  of  political  power,  but  French 
policy  was  also  influenced  by  other  reasons  of  nearly  equal 
weight.  Louis  !N'apoleon  and  his  associates,  "the  Brethren 
of  the  Elysee,"  as  Mr.  Kinglake  calls  them,  had  with  the 
aid  of  the  army  seized  upon  France,  and  with  the  slaughter 
of  innocent  thousands  in  the  streets  of  Paris,  the  banish- 
ment of  other  thousands  that  they  might  die  in  Cayenne, 
and  the  imprisonment  of  multitudes  beside,  had  crushed 


92      CONDITION  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  RUSSIA  AND  AMERICA, 

out  of  "her  the  power  of  resistance,  and  held  her  helpless  in 
their  bloody  grasp.  They  styled  themselves  a  government, 
the  French  Government,  and  Louis  ISTapoleon  declared  him- 
self an  Emperor,  the  Emperor  of  France.  He  desired  as  a 
first  necessity,  recognition  of  his  claims,  and  respect  for  the 
Empire  thus  created,  as  it  was,  in  one  day  of  slaughter. 

If  he  could  succeed  in  obtaining  this  recognition  from 
England,  it  would  have  a  double  value,  because  she  was  not 
only  the  foremost  State  of  Europe,  but  she  was  the  ancient 
enemy  of  France.  This  was  his  first  object,  and  this  was 
easily  gained,  or  if  not  easily,  it  certainly  was  quickly  done. 

But  this,  however  important,  was  only  one  step  towards 
an  ultimate  end.  If  what  has  been  previously  stated  in 
regard  to  the  traditional  policy  of  France  is  received  as 
correct,  if  one  remembers  that  the  leading  purpose  of  the 
first  ISTapoleon  was  the  establishment  of  a  European  Latin 
Empire,  with  France  at  the  head  of  the  Empire  and  the 
Papal  church,  and  that  Louis  ^N'apoleon  has  dev6ted  himself 
to  the  carrying  out  of  the  unfinished  schemes  of  his  uncle, 
then  a  clear  light  will  be  shed  on  the  Alliance,  the  Crimean 
war,  his  hostility  to  the  United  States,  and  his  invasion  of 
Mexico. 

If  it  is  conceded  that  his  design  was  to  make  France 
supreme  in  Europe,  and  to  unite  under  her  the  Latin  race, 
and  restore  over  the  world  the  lost  "  strength  and  prestige" 
of  the  Papal  church,  then  it  was  necessary  to  accomplish 
these  designs, — ^to  crush  England  or  make  her  his  ally  and 
tool,  for  a  time,  and  then  when  strong  enough,  compel  her 
to  serve  him,  or  risk  destruction,  to  arrest  the  progress  of 
the  Greek  church  and  Russia  in  the  East,  and  to  prevent 
the  further  growth  of  the  United  States,  which  was  sup- 
planting the  political  power  of  the  Latin  and  the  Catholic 
church  in  the  West. 

If  such  a  supposition  seems  to  invest  Louis  ]!*^apoleon 
with  a  greatness  to  which  he  has  no  proper  claims,  let  it  he 
remembered,  that  if  he  is  not  equal  to  the  forming  of  such 
a  vast  design,  that  he  has  advisers  within  the  Papal  church, 
whose  sagacity  and  ambition  are  quite  sufficient  to  originate 


WHEN  THE  ANGLO-FRENCH  ALLIANCE  WAS  FORMED.  93 

such  a  sclieme,  and  that  it  lies,  moreover,  along  the  familiar 
line  of  thought  of  every  ahle  Jesuit  in  Europe  or  America. 

In  attempting  to  carry  out  so  vast  a  plan,  it  was,  of  course, 
necessary,  first  of  all,  to  make  some  safe  disposition  of  Eng- 
land. Two  methods  were  open  to  the  choice  of  the  Em- 
peror. He  might  attack  her  with  a  superior  army,  and 
with  a  navy  nearly  equal  in  efficiency,  but,  to  say  the  least, 
this  would  he  a  hazardous  attempt,  and  Louis  Napoleon 
might  well  hesitate  at  what  his  uncle  had  shrunk  from  when 
at  the  height  of  his  power.  Or  he  might  propose  to  her  an 
alliance,  under  cover  of  which,  and  even  by  the  assistance 
of  England,  France  might  increase  her  strength,  and  per- 
haps assume  the  position  of  leader. 

He  chose  this  latter  course,  as  not  only  safer,  but  as 
offering  the  fairest  prospect  of  ultimate  success.  But  how 
could  he  approach  England  with  such  a-  proposition  ? 
How  detach  her  from  her  ancient  friendships  and  link  her 
to  the  fortunes  of  her  most  bitter  foe?  The  bait  was 
cunningly  contrived — England,  for  reasons  already  stated, 
feared  the  growing  power  of  Russia.  It  was  her  traditional 
policy  to  hinder  her  growth,  and  counteract  the  plots  of  the 
Czar  that  looked  towards  Constantinople  and  the  East- 
She  watched  with  jealous  care  each  movement  of  Russia 
which  appeared  to  threaten  Turkey  or  the  Mediterranean. 
France,  on  the  contrary,  had  adopted  no  such  steadfast  and 
clearly  defined  policy  in  regard  to  "  The  Easterii  Question." 
Her  position  at  this  time  is  thus  stated  by  Mr.  Kinglake : 

"Among  the  very  foremost  of  the  G-reat  Powers  of  Europe 
was  France  ;  and  she  was  well  entitled,  if  her  rulers  should 
so  think  fit,  to  use  her  strength  against  any  potentate  threat- 
ening to  alter  the  great  territorial  arrangements  of  Europe ; 
and  especially  it  was  her  right  to  withstand  any  changes 
which  she  might  regard  as  menacing  to  her  power  in  the 
Mediterranean.  But  French  statesmen  have  generally 
thought  that,  as  the  Mediterranean  after  all  is  only  a  part 
of  the  ocean,  a  new  maritime  power  in  the  Levant  might 
be  rather  a  convenient  ally  against  England,  than  a  dan- 


94      CONDITION  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  RUSSIA  AND  AMERICA, 

gerous  rival  to  France ;  and,  upon  the  whole,  it  was  difficult 
to  make  out,  either  from  the  nature  of  things  or  from  the 
general  course  of  her  policy,  that  France  had  any  deep  in- 
terest in  the  integrity  of  the  Sultan's  dominions.  At  all 
events,  her  interest  was  not  of  so  cogent  a  sort  as  to  oblige 
her  to  stand  more  forward  than  any  of  the  other  great 
Powers,  or  to  bear  in  any  greater  proportion  than  they 
might  do,  the  charge  of  keeping  the  Ottoman  Empire  un- 
touched. Indeed,  it  was  hard  at  that  time  to  infer  from 
the  past  acts  of  France  that  she  had  any  settled  policy 
upon  the  Eastern  Question.  She  had  clung  with  some 
steadiness  to  the  idea  of  establishing  French  influence  in 
Syria ;  and  from  time  to  time  during  the  last  half  century 
she  had  been  inclined  to  entangle  herself  in  Egypt ;  but 
upon  the  question  whether  the  elements  constituting  the 
Ottoman  Empire  should  be  kept  together,  she  had  gener- 
ally seemed  to  be  undecided ;  for,  although  she  took  part 
in  the  conservative  arrangements  of  1841,  her  conduct  in 
the  previous  year,  and  at  several  other  times  of  crisis,  had 
disclosed  no  great  reluctance  on  her  part  to  see  the  empire 
dismembered.  Upon  the  supposition,  however,  that  she  in- 
tended to  pursue  the  policy  which  she  afterward  avowed, 
and  to  concur  in  the  endeavor  to  maintain  the  Sultan's 
dominions,  her  duty  toward  herself  and  to  Europe  required 
that  she  should  herself  refrain  from  disturbmg  the  quiet  of 
the  East ;  and  that  in  the  event  of  any  wrongful  aggression 
by  Russia  upon  the  dominions  of  the  Sultan,  she  should 
loyally  range  herself  with  such  of  the  four  great  Powers  aa 
might  be  willing  to  check  the  encroachment  by  their 
authority,  or,  in  last  resort,  by  force  of  arms ;  but  it  was 
not  at  all  incumbent  upon  France  to  place  herself  in  the 
van ;  and  it  was  not  consistent  with  the  welfare  of  her 
people  that  she  should  take  upon  herself  a  share  of  the 
European  burden  disproportionate  to  her  interest  in  the 
state  of  Eastern  Europe.  IsTor  was  there  at  this  time  any 
reason  to  imagine  that  the  country  could  be  brought  into 
strife,  or  engaged  in  warlike  enterprises  without  sufficient 
cause :  for  the  institutions  of  France  had  not  then  shriveled 


WHEN  THE  ANGLO-FRENCH  ALLIANCE  WAS  FORMED.  95 

up  into  a  system  wliicli  subordinated  the  vast  interests  of 
the  State  to  the  mere  safety  and  welfare  of  its  ruler.  The 
legislative  power  and  the  control  of  the  supplies  were  in 
the  hands  of  an  Assembly  freely  elected ;  and  both  in  the 
Chamber  and  in  print,  men  enjoyed  the  right  of  free 
speech.  Also  the  executive  power  rested  lawfully  in  the 
hands  of  ministers  responsible  to  Parliament ;  and  there- 
fore, although  the  President,  as  will  be  seen,  could  do  acts 
leading  to  mischief  and  danger,  he  could  not  bring  France 
to  a  rupture  with  a  foreign  State  unless  war  were  really 
demanded  by  the  interests  or  by  the  honor,  or  at  least  by 
the  passions  of  the  country.  And,  the  people  being  peace- 
fully inclined,  and  the  interests  and  the  honor  of  the 
country  being  carefully  respected  by  all  foreign  States, 
France  was  not  at  that  time  a  source  of  disturbance  to 
Europe." 

But  for  the  purpose  of  winning  England,  and  binding 
her  to  the  fortunes  of  his  throne  by  solemn  contract,  the 
Emperor  adopted  suddenly  an  Eastern  policy  suited  to  the 
English  market.  He  first  of  all  placed  himself  in  an  atti- 
tude of  incipient  hostility  towards  Russia,  and  when  the 
wiles  of  his  Jesuits  had  provoked  the  Russian  Emperor, 
and  induced  him  to  threaten  Turkey,  he  at  once  turned  to 
England  as  an  ardent  convert  to  her  Eastern  policy,  and 
ofiered  to  unite  with  her  in  checking  the  ambition  of 
Russia.  Mr.  Kinglake  has  set  forth  this  diplomatic  man- 
oeuvre in  the  following  passage : 

"  At  length,  nay  so  early  as  the  28th  of  January,  1853, 
the  French  Emperor  perceived  that  his  measures  had 
effectually  aroused  the  Czar's  hostility  to  the  Sultan,  and 
he  instantly  proposed  to  England  that  the  two  Powers 
should  act  together  in  extinguishing  the  flames  which  he 
himself  had  just  kindled,  and  should  endeavor  to  come  to 
a  joint  understanding,  with  a  view  to  resist  the  ambition  of 
Russia.  Knowing  beforehand  what  the  policy  of  England 
was,  he  all  at  once  adopted  it,  and  proposed  it  to  our 


96      CONDITION  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  RUSSIA  AND  AMERICA, 

Government  in  tlie  very  terms  alwa^^s  used  by  English 
statesmen.  He  took,  as  it  were,  an  *  old  copy'  of  the  first 
English  speech  from  the  throne  which  came  to  his  hand, 
and  following  its  words,  declared  that  the  first  object 
should  be  to  '  preserve  the  integrity  of  the  Ottoman  Em- 
pire.'* From  that  moment  until  the  summer  of  1855,  and 
perhaps  even  down  to  a  still  later  period,  he  did  not  once 
swerve  from  the  great  scheme  of  forming  and  maintaining 
an  offensive  alliance  with  England  against  the  Czar,  and  to 
that  object  he  subordinated  all  other  considerations.  He 
had  at  that  time  the  rare  gift  of  being  able  to  keep  him- 
self alive  to  the  proportionate  value  of  political  objects. 
He  knew  how  to  give  up  the  less  for  the  sake  of  attaining 
and  keeping  the  greater.  Governed  by  this  principle,  he 
gradually  began  to  draw  closer  and  closer  toward  England ; 
and  when  the  angry  Czar  imagined  that  he  was  advancing 
in  the  cause  of  his  Church  agahist  a  resolute  champion  of 
the  Latins,  his  wily  adversary  was  smiling  perhaps  with 
Lord  Cowley  about  the  '  key'  and  the  *  cupola,'  and  prepar- 
ing to  form  an  alliance  on  strictly  temporal  grounds. 

"  It  would  have  been  well  for  Europe  if  the  exigencies 
of  the  persons  then  wielding  the  destinies  of  France  would 
have  permitted  the  State  to  rest  content  with  that  honest 
share  of  duty  which  fell  to  the  lot  ofieach  of  the  four 
Powers  when  the  intended  occupation  of  the  Principalities 
was  announced.  ^Neither  the  interest  nor  the  honor  of 
France  required  that  in  the  Eastern  question  she  should 
stand  more  forward  than  any  other  of  the  remonstrant 
States  ;  but  the  personal  interest  of  the  new  Emperor  and 
his  December  friends  did  not  at  all  coincide  with  the 
interest  of  France ;  for  what  he  and  his  associates  wanted, 
and  what  in  truth  they  really  needed,  was  to  thrust  France 
into  a  conflict,  which  might  be  either  diplomatic  or  warlike, 
but  which  was  at  all  events  to  be  of  a  conspicuous  sort, 
tending  to  ward  off  the  peril  of  home  politics,  and  give  to 
the  fabric  of  the  2nd  of  December  something  like  station 

*  *  Eastern  Papers,'  part  i.,  page  68. 


WHEN  THE  ANGLO-FRENCH  ALLIANCE  WAS  FORMED.  97 

and  celebrity  in  Europe.  In  order  to  achieve  this,  it  clearly 
would  not  suffice  for  France  to  be  merely  one  of  a  conference 
of  four  great  Powers  quietly  and  temperately  engaged  in 
repressing  the  encroachments  of  the  Czar.  Her  part  in  such 
a  business  could  not  possibly  be  so  prominent,  nor  so  ani- 
mating as  to  draw  away  the  attention  of  the  French  from 
the  persons  who  had  got  into  their  palaces  and  their  offices 
of  State.  On  the  other  hand,  a  close,  separate,  and  signifi- 
cant alliance  with  England,  and  with  England  alone,  to  the 
exclusion  of  the  rest  of  the  four  Powers,  would  not  only 
bring  about  the  conflict  which  was  needed  for  the  safety 
and  comfort  of  the  Tuileries,  but  would  seem  in  the  eyes  of 
the  mistaken  world  to  give  the  sanction  of  the  Queen's 
pure  name  to  the  acts  of  the  December  night  and  the  Thurs-^ 
day  the  day  of  blood.  The  unspeakable  value  of  this  moral 
shelter  to  persons  in  the  condition  of  the  new  French  Mon- 
arch, and  St.  Arnaud,  Morny,  and  Maupas,  can  never  be 
understood  except  by  those  who  look  back  and  remember 
how  exalted  the  moral  station  of  England  was  in  the  period 
which  elapsed  between  the  10th  of  April,  1848,  and  the 
time  when  she  suffered  herself  to  become  entangled  in 
engagements  with  the  French  Emperor, 
i  "  It  would  have  been  right  enough  that  France  and  Eng- 
land, as  the  two  great  maritime  Powers,  should  have  come 
to  an  understanding  with  each  other  in  regard  to  the  dis- 
position of  their  fleets ;  but,  even  if  they  had  been  concert- 
ing for  only  that  limited  purpose,  it  would  have  been  right 
that  the  general  tenor  and  object  of  their  naval  arrange- 
ments should  have  received  the  antecedent  approval  of  the 
two  other  Powers  with  whom  they  were  in  cordial  agree- 
ment. The  English  Government,  however,  not  only  con- 
sented to  engage  in  naval  movements  which  affected — nay, 
actually  governed — the  question  of  peace  or  war,  but  fell 
into  the  error  of  concerting  these  movements  with  France 
alone,  and  doing  this — not  because  of  any  difference  which 
had  arisen  between  the  four  Powers,  but — simply  because 
France  and  England  were  provided  with  ships ;  so  that  in 
truth  the  "Western  Powers,  merely  because  they  were  pos- 


98      CONDITION  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  RUSSIA  AND  AMERICA, 

sessed  of  tlie  implement  which  enabled  them  to  put  a  pres- 
sure upon  the  Czar,  resolved  to  act  as  though  they  were 
the  only  judges  of  the  question  whether  the  pressure  should 
be  applied  or  not ;  and  this  at  a  time  when,  as  Lord  Clar- 
endon declared  in  Parliament,  the  four  Powers  were  '  all 
acting  cordially  together.'  Of  course,  this  wanton  segrega- 
tion tended  to  supersede  or  dissolve  the  concord  which 
bound  the  four  Powers,  and,  as  a  sure  consequence,  to 
endanger  yet  more  than  ever  the  cause  of  peace.  Some 
strange  blindness  prevented  Lord  Aberdeen  from  seeing  the 
path  he  trod,  or  rather  prevented  him  from  seeing  with  a 
clearness  conducive  to  action.  But  what  the  French  Em- 
peror wanted  was  even  more  than  this,  and  what  he  wanted 
was  done.  It  is  true  that  neither  admiration  nor  moral 
disapproval  of  the  conduct  of  princes  ought  to  have  any 
exceeding  sway  over  our  relations  with  foreign  States,  and 
if  we  had  had  the  misfortune  to  find  that  the  Emperor  of 
the  French  was  the  only  potentate  in  Europe  whose  policy 
was  in  accord  with  our  own,  it  might  have  been  right  that 
closer  relations  of  alliance  with  France  (however  humiliat- 
ing they  might  seem  in  the  eyes  of  the  moralist)  should 
have  followed  our  separation  from  the  other  States  of 
Europe.  But  no  such  separation  had  occurred.  "What 
the  French  Emperor  ventured  to  attempt,  and  what  he 
actually  succeeded  in  achieving,  was  to  draw  England  into 
;a  distinct  and  separate  alliance  with  himself — not  at  a  time 
when  she  was  isolated,  but — at  a  moment  when  she  was  in 
.close  accord  with  the  rest  of  the  four  Powers." 

England  was  thus  gained  for  France.  It  was  the  most 
momentous  step  in  her  history  since  the  Peformation,  and 
the  full  results  cannot  be  foreseen  as  yet.  For  reasons 
which,  as  Mr.  Kinglake  says,  have  never  yet  been  satisfac- 
torily explained,  she  separated  herself  secretly  from  Austria 
and  Prussia,  and,  with  no  necessity  laid  upon  her  by  the 
state  of  the  negotiations  with  Russia  and  Turkey,  joined 
France  in  a  crusade  against  Hussia. 

The  reasons,  says  her  historian,  have  not  been  revealed. 


WHEN  THE   ANGLO-FRENCH   ALLIANCE   WAS   FORMED.         99 

Eecent  events  in  connection  with  our  own  country  are  now 
throwing  back  a  clear  light  upon  the  reasons  for  the  Anglo 
French  Alliance,  which  at  the  time  were  only  hinted  at  in 
sentences  falling  from  English  statesmen,  and  which  appeared 
like  enigmas  when  uttered — such  as  **the  Alliance  has  refer- 
ence to  Western  as  well  as  Eastern  affairs."  We  know  too 
well  now  the  meaning  of  those  declarations. 

England  had  been  placed  in  safe  position.  France  might 
now  push  her  military  preparation  to  any  extent,  and  Eng- 
land could  not  complain.  She  could  increase  her  navy  till 
it  should  be  a  match  for  that  of  Britain,  and  it  would  merely 
be  to  prepare  to  execute  her  part  of  the  contract.  She 
could  pursue  her  schemes  for  supremacy  in  any  direction, 
and  depend  upon  the  powerful  aid  of  England.  England 
having  been  thus  secured,  the  next  step  in  the  grand  con- 
spiracy against  the  nations  would  naturally  be  to  use  the 
power  of  Great  Britain  in  an  attempt  to  cripple  the  military 
strength  of  Kussia,  and  check  the  progress  of  the  Greek 
Church,  and  restore  in  the  East  the  lost  prestige  and  power 
of  the  Papal  Church,  precisely  as  France  now  proposes  to 
do  in  Mexico  and  throughout  this  "Western  Continent.  It 
need  not  be  supposed  that  Louis  ^N'apoleon,  or  his  political 
associates,  have  any  special  regard  for  any  church  or  any 
religion,  but  it  is  through  the  church  alone  that  the  rehead- 
ing  of  the  Latin  nations  under  one  imperial  crown  can  be 
effected.  Their  history,  their  former  glory,  their  religious 
sentiments,  hopes  and  fears,  their  traditions  and  super- 
stitions, are  all  bound  up  with  the  Papal  Church. 

There  can  be  no  restoration  of  empire  for  them,  without 
restoring  at  the  same  time  the  supremacy  of  the  Eoman 
Catholic  Church.  Without  the  church,  the  ambitious 
scheme  of  the  two  jN'apoleons  could  never  be  successful,  and 
therefore  it  is  that  in  every  movement  of  France,  the  church 
and  the  empire  are  inseparably  connected.  While,  there- 
fore, the  Emperor  presented  to  England  such  political  and 
commercial  considerations  as  he  thought  would  move  her, 
it  was  at  the  same  time  carefully  arranged  that  the  opening 
contest  with  Russia  should  have  a  religious  character — 


100      CONDITION  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  RUSSIA  AND  AMERICA, 

should  be,  in  fact,  a  renewal  of  the  struggle  of  ages  between 
the  Eastern  and  "Western  churches,  the  Latin  and  the 
Greek ;  a  conflict  which  had  so  often  shaken  all  Christen- 
dom, and  crimsoned  the  East  and  the  West  with  blood. 

So  it  was  understood  by  the  Czar  and  the  Russian  people, 
and  so,  also,  it  was  understood  by  the  present  leaders  of  the 
Papal  Church.  Mr.  Kinglake  has  this  remark :  "  When 
"  the  angry  Czar  imagined  that  he  was  advancing  in  the 
"  cause  of  his  Church  against  a  resolute  champion  of  the 
"  Latins,  his  wily  adversary  was  smiling  perhaps  with  Lord 
"  Cowley  about  the  *  key,'  and  the  '  cupola,'  and  proposing 
"  to  form  an  alliance  on  strictly  temporal  grounds."  Events 
have  shown  that  Mr.  Kinglake  was  mistaken ;  or,  if  he  is 
right  in  his  conjecture,  then  neither  Lord  Derby  nor  Louis 
I^apoleon  understood  the  full  meaning  of  their  own  acts. 
There  were  deeper  grounds  of  quarrel  than  any  mere  tem- 
poral interest.  Beneath  all  else,  was  the  undying,  unresting 
ambition  of  the  Papal  Church  and  its  Jesuit  leaders. 

Other  considerations  doubtless  influenced  Louis  Napoleon. 
He  knew  that  in  the  expedition  which  he  was  projecting 
in  the  Crimea,  there  would  be  no  great  opportunity  for  the 
English  navy  to  win  renown,  and  he  rightly  believed  that 
the  French  army  was  superior  to  that  of  Britain.  If,  there- 
fore, the  joint  effort  should  prove  successful  against  Russia, 
the  French  Emperor  might  hope  that  France  would  win 
the  principal  glory,  and  be  recognized  once  more  as  the 
great  military  power  of  Europe.  All  now  know  that  this 
was  the  actual  result.  England  came  out  of  the  contest 
with  her  glory  dimmed,  her  influence  diminished,  her  mili- 
tary weakness  unveiled,  and  France  was  in  the  ascendant. 
Such  was  the  general  condition  of  the  four  great  powers 
particularly  affected  by  the  Anglo  French  Alliance,  at  the 
time  when  it  was  formed,  and  it  seems  not  very  diflicult  to 
understand  the  motives  in  which  it  originated,  or  the  pur- 
poses of  the  contracting  parties.  England  was  glad  to 
exchange  the  old  French  enemy  that  she  dreaded  into  a 
new  French  friend,  and  then,  as  the  Times  declared,  the 
two   Powers  beigg  strong   enough  to  control  the  world, 


WHEN  THE  ANGLO-FRENCH  iLLIANCE  WAS '^OilllBlS.^         lOl 

England  could  use  this  allied  strength,  first,  to  humble 
and  cripple  Eussia,  and  then  give  such  attention  to  the 
rising  empire  of  the  West  as  should  prevent  us  also  from 
growing  too  strong. 

Intimations  of  this  kind  fell  from  English  statesmen,  and 
the  Times*  oracle  and  the  Quarterlies  echoed  their  senti- 
ments.    The  following  are  examples : 

"The  Alliance  with  France  does  not  regard  the  East 
exclusively,  but  has  reference  to  affairs  in  both  hemi- 
spheres."* 

"  Our  transatlantic  cousins  will  become  a  trifle  less  inso- 
lent and  overbearing,  when  they  find  that  the  fleet  which 
*  summers'  in  the  Baltic  can,  without  cost  or  effort,  *  winter' 
in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  our  statesmen  will  not  again 
need  to  speak  with  'bated  breath'  in  the  cause  of  humanity 
and  justice,  from  a  dread  lest  the  spirit  of  the  country  will 
not,  or  the  energies  of  the  country  can  not,  bear  them  out 
in  assuming  a  loftier  tone."f 

"  "When  Russia  is  settled,  France  may  safely  abate  her] 
army,  and  England  her  navy,  but  neither  must  disarm.  If 
they  do,  not  only  will  other  Powers  cease  to  respect  them, 
but  they  will  cease  to  respect  each  other.  We  must  still  be 
able  to  say  '  iVo'  to  our  lively  young  brother  across  the  Atlantic, 
if  he  wants  Cuba  without  paying  for  it,  or  takes  any  other  little 
vagary  into  his  head,"X 

"England  and  France  together  are  strong  enough  to 
bind  nearly  all  the  world  over  to  keep  the  peace." || 

There  seemed  to  be  a  general  English  wish,  that  when 

♦  Sentiment  expressed  by  Lord  Clarendon,  and  indorsed  in  France. 
I*  North  British  Review,  November  1854, written  when  England  thougbt  Sebas- 
lopol  had  already  fallen,  or  might  be  regarded  as  captured. 
X  Blackwood,  November,  1854. 
(  Blackwood,  November,  1854. 


102     :^(X>NI>iTlW  OF-ENGiiAND,  FRANCE,  RUSSIA  AND  AMERICA. 

"Russia  was  settled"  attention  should  be  given  to  the 
United  States,  and  a  general  expectation  that  it  would  be 
done — that,  in  some  form,  France  and  England  would  in- 
terpose and  humble  the  pride  of  the  Great  Republic.  On 
the  part  of  England  the  Alliance  was  formed,  first,  to 
secure  herself,  at  least  for  a  time,  against  France,  then,  if 
possible,  to  crush  or  hinder  her  two  rising  commercial  and 
manufacturing  rivals,  Russia  and  the  United  States;  and 
when  the  secret  notes  and  conversations  of  the  time  shall 
come  to  light  it  will  be  revealed  that,  in  its  original  con- 
ception, this  contract  was  an  Alliance  both  against  Russia 
and  America,  with  the  intention  as  definite  and  real,  of 
attacking  in  some  form  the  United  States,  as  was  the  plan 
of  war  against  R^issia. 

The  occasion  of  our  rebellion  was  eagerly  seized  as  the  fit 
instrument  for  our  destruction,  and  every  step  of  England 
and  France  has  been  taken  to  carry  out  the  spirit  and  in- 
tention of  the  original  Alliance.  France,  as  has  been 
stated,  was  operating  upon  a  wider  plan,  and  with  a  deeper 
purpose.  Her  scheme  was  one  of  universal  empire,  with 
the  prestige  of  the  Latin  race  and  church  restored  both 
east  and  west.  This  was  in  sympathy  with  English  policy, 
so  far  as  it  went,  but  sne  had  also  a  grander  ambition  of 
her  own. 

"When  France  attacked  Russia,  it  was  not  simply  one 
State  against  another,  it  was  the  Western  Latin  Church 
striking  once  more  for  the  supremacy  of  the  world.  When, 
subsequently,  Louis  ISTapoleon  attacked  Austria,  it  was  not 
to  free  Italy,  as  Italy  since  has  learned,  but  to  place  France 
instead  of  Austria  at  the  head  of  Catholic  Europe. 

The  French  Emperor,  with  his  troops  guarding  the 
Pope  at  Rome,  is  again  the  "  eldest  son  of  the  Church." 
On  this  eldest  son  the  Papal  power  now  rests  its  hope,  and 
the  movement  upon  Mexico  is  simply  another  step  in  the 
scheme  of  recovering  the  lost  power  of  the  Latin  race 
under  the  lead  of  France,  and  to  restore  on  this  continent 
the  supremacy  of  the  Papal  Church  by  crippling  a  free 
Protestant  Republic. 


THE  CBIMEAN  WAR — IT  WAS  BEGUN  BY  PRANCE.  108 


CHAPTER    IX 


THE  CBIMEAN  WAR.— IT  WAS  BEGUN  BY  FRANCE.— IT  WAS  IN  ITS  ORIGIN  A 
RELIGIOUS  WAR,  AN  ATTEMPT  OF  THE  PAPACY  TO  TIEGAIN  ITS  ASCEND- 
ANCY IN  THE  EAST  OVER  THE  GREEK  CHURCH. 


f  Americans  cannot  fully  understand  the  motives  whicli 
have  governed  England  and  France  since  the  outbreak  of 
the  rebellion  without  studying  the  nature  and  purposes  of 
the  war  against  Russia  in  the  Crimea.  That  war  was  the 
first  part  of  a  plan,  of  which  the  other  was  to  cripple  the 
United  States  either  by  State  craft  or  by  arms,  whenever 
the  opportunity  should  come  after  Eussia  was  "  settled." 

The  general  principles  and  purposes  which  originated  the 
war  against  Eussia  were  the  same  which  have  guided  these 
allied  Powers  in  their  hostility  to  the  American  Eepublic. 
The  United  States  in  the  West  occupied  the  same  position 
as  Eussia  in  the  East,  and  JMexico  is_thejv^stern_Turk£y  \ 

to  be  sustained  or  occupied, against   pur growing.pjaw^i:- J 

Englatid  looked  at  it  then  as  now,  from  the  commercial 
stand-point,  fearing  a  rival  in  the  West  as  in  the  East, 
while  the  object  of  the  Papal  leaders  who  urged  France 
into  hostilities,  was  to  restore  in  the  East  the  strength  and 
prestige  of  the  Eoman  Church,  as  they  now  propose  to  do 
the  same  thing  in  the  West  by  a  French  occupation  of 
Mexico,  and  as  much  more  of  the  American  continent  as 
circumstances  may  allow. 

For  the  same  reason  that  the  Allies  interfered  to  prevent 
Eussia  from  opening  an  eastern  route  to  India  by  way  of 
the  Black  Sea,  the  Caspian  and  the  Aral,  do  they  now  pro- 


104  THE   CRIMEAN  WAR — IT   WAS   BEGUN  BY  FRANCE. 

pose  to  block  up  our  American  western  road  to  Asia ;  and 
the  same  policy  which  causes  the  reopening  of  the  ship 
canal  across  the  Isthmus  of  Suez  has  also  planned  the 
French  ship  canal  across  our  American  Isthmus,  and  made 
surveys  and  maps,  not  only  of  Central  America  and  Mexico, 
but  of  our  whole  Pacific  coast.  The  plan  of  the  Allies  in 
the  East  was  the  exact  counterpart  of  their  plot  against 
the  United  States,  a  plot  which  the  rebellion  has  only  in 
part  revealed. 

The  Crimean  war,  then,  should  be  carefully  studied  by 
Americans,  in  order  to  understand  the  real  motives  by 
which  France  and  England  are  governed. 

During  the  progress  of  the  siege  of  Sebastopol,  the 
author  of  this  work  wrote  as  follows  in  reference  to  the 
attack  upon  Hussia,  and  the  quotation  is  made  for  the  pur- 
pose of  showing  how  events  have  justified  the  warning, 
and  to  convince  Americans  that  the  views  then  set  forth 
were  correct,  and  that  the  dangers  pointed  out  were  real. 

"The  interest  of  the  United  States  in  this  struggle  is 
second  only  to  that  of  Russia,  and  to  a  great  degree  is  evi- 
dently identical  with  hers.  '  When  Russia  is  settled,'  what 
remains  but  to  settle  the  United  States  also,  inasmuch,  as 
the  North  British  suggests,  the  Allied  fleets  can  spend  their 
summers  in  the  Baltic  and  their  winters  with  us.  Let 
those  whose  sympathies  have  flowed  so  freely  for  the  Allies 
consider  the  tremendous  stake  which  our  country  has  in 
this  contest.  It  is  quite  natural,  and  entirely  right,  that 
American  Christians  should  cultivate  the  most  friendly 
feeling  with  our  fellow  Christians  in  England,  and  that  we 
should  be  grateful  for  the  kindness  with  which  her  public 
servants  have  regarded  our  missionary  efibrts  in  Turkey, 
and  that  we  should  feel  a  deep  interest  in  her  as  our  mother 
country  and  as  a  Protestant  nation,  and  it  would  be  an  act 
not  only  of  folly  but  of  wickedness  to  excite  against  her  a 
causeless  hostility. 

"  But  it  would  manifest  still  greater  infatuation  if  we 
should  suffer  these  things  to  mislead  us  in  regard  to  the 


IT  WAS  m  ITS  ORIGIN  A  RELIGIOUS   WAR.  105 

actual  character  of  this  war,  or  close  our  eyes  to  the  mani- 
fest designs  of  the  Allies,  or  fail  to  perceive  the  selfish, 
arrogant  spirit  that  rules  their  policy.  Let  Americans  be 
careful,  lest  by  a  misplaced  sympathy  they  not  only  sustain 
a  wrong,  but  endanger  their  own  country. 

"  It  was  natural  that  Americans,  in  the  beginning  of  this 
conflict,  should  cheer  on  France  and  England  with  their 
sympathies  and  their  prayers,  for  then  it  appeared  to  be 
what  they  so  loudly  declared  it  was,  a  war  of  freedom 
against  despotism,  of  civilization  against  barbarism ;  and  it 
was  expected  that  the  yoke  of  enslaved  nations  would  be 
broken.  But  can  it  be  expected  that  Americans  should 
still  feel  deeply  interested  in  their  success  when  it  is  so 
clearly  shown  by  testimony  and  by  actions,  that  this  assault 
upon  Russia  has  been  prompted  by  no  generous  motive 
whatever,  by  no  hatred  of  despotism,  no  desire  for  the  deliv- 
erance of  the  oppressed,  no  kind  regard  even  for  tottering 
Turkey — ^but  simply  with  the  unrighteous  design  of  check- 
ing the  growth  and  hindering  the  prosperity  of  a  neighbor- 
ing nation,  which  might  dispute  with  them  their  commercial 
supremacy,  mingled,  on  the  part  of  France,  with  the  per- 
sonal ambition  and  personal  pique  of  her  sovereign,  and 
the  intention  of  restoring  supremacy  to  the  Catholic  Church; 
and  when,  moreover,  it  is  virtually  declared  that  so  soon  as 
Russia  is  '  settled,'  the  aifairs  of  the  western  hemisphere 
will  receive  attention. 

^  "  The  fact  will  not  much  longer  be  concealed  from  the 
world,  that  the  true  question  involved  in  this  war  is  whether 
France  and  England  shall  be  the  joint  dictators  of  the  world, 
domineering  over  all  oceans  with  their  navies,  and  prescrib- 
ing limits  to  the  growth  of  nations ;  whether  they  shall  be 
permitted  to  say  to  Russia,  *  You  shall  advance  no  further 
eastward,'  or  to  the  United  States,  '  You  shall  neither  have 
the  Sandwich  Islands,  nor  Cuba,  nor  Mexico,  and  you,  and 
all  other  Powers,  shall  dwell  within  the  limits  which  we 
think  proper  to  allow.'  This  is  the  real  significance  of  the 
Eastern  war,  to  which  the  United  States  will  do  well  to 
give  heed  in  time. 


106        THE   CRIMEAN  WAR — IT   WAS   BEGUN  BY   FRANCE. 

"  It  becomes  us  to  consider  in  due  season  whether  we  are 
prepared  to  submit  to  such  dictation,  or  whether  we  shall 
claim  and  exercise,  at  all  hazards,  the  right  of  unrestricted 
development.  The  batteries  of  Cronstadt  and  Sebastopol 
are  ranged  in  front  of  American  as  well  as  Russian  rights, 
and  the  interest  of  the  United  States  in  the  preservation 
of  the  Russian  navy  is  second  only  to  that  of  Russia  her- 
self. The  last  war  for  American  independence  is  yet  to 
come,  if  Russia  can  be  humbled. 

The  United  States  and  Russia  sustain  almost  precisely 
I  the  same  general  relations  to  France  and  England,  and  to 
f  the  main  objects  of  their  Alliance.  Both  are  animated  by 
a  vigorous  life,  seeking  on  all  sides  room  for  its  expansion. 
Both  are  already  formidable,  and  promise  an  overshadow- 
ing greatness  in  the  future.  Both  are  seeking  commercial 
and  manufacturing  importance,  and  threaten  to  rival  older 
States.  Each  is  advancing  at  a  rate  unknown  to  other 
nations. 

"  Both  are  regarded  with  intense  hostility  by  the  Papal 
Church,  and  her  priests  and  Jesuits  are  equally  laboring  for 
the  overthrow  of  each.  Both  are  seeking  to  secure  for 
themselves  a  share  of  the  commerce  of  the  East,  and  meet 
alike  the  opposition  of  France  and  England.  Both  are 
seeking  for  themselves  a  theater  of  national  life  outside  of 
the  sphere  of  Western  Europe,  and  Western  Europe  inter- 
feres with  both.  Both  claim  the  right  of  making  an  ex- 
periment for  themselves  in  a  civilization  of  their  own,  and 
have  been  met,  each  in  its  turn,  not  only  with  sneers,  but 
hostility ;  and  both  stand  confronted  by  the  Anglo-French 
Alliance — ^the  one  in  the  Baltic  and  at  Sebastopol,  the  other 
in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  in  the  Sandwich  Islands,  and  in 
Central  America,  ready  to  say  *  No'  to  our  progress  when 
'  Russia  is  settled.'  " 

These  were  not  vain  words,  as  subsequent  events  have 
shown,  and  the  author,  with  the  consent  of  the  publishers, 
has  made  free  use  of  such  other  portions  of  the  work  from 
which  this  was  taken  as  seem  suited  to  his  present  purpose; 


IT  WAS  m  ITS   ORIGIN  A  RELIGIOUS  WAR.  107 

and  it  is  but  justice  to  himself  to  state  that  the  main  thoughts 
setting  forth  the  origin  and  purpose  of  the  Crimean  war  were 
first  written  out  and  published  some  ten  years  ago,  and  while 
the  war  was  in  actual  progress.  Were  it  not  for  this  state- 
ment, it  might  appear  that  they  had  merely  been  borrowed 
from  later  writers,  especially  from  Mr.  Kinglake,  whose  recent 
statement  of  the  origin  of  the  Crimean  War  is  here  pre- 
sented as  a  complete  justification  of  what  the  author  of  this 
book  wrote  and  published  nearly  ten  years  ago.  l^o  other 
apology  is  needed  for  quoting  nearly  the  entire  chapter 
from  Mr  Kinglake  than  this.  He  wrote  with  every  possible 
advantage  for  knowing  the  truth;  his  is  the  very  latest 
work  upon  the  subject,  and  its  authority  is  not  to  be  suc- 
cessfully disputed  upon  these  points,  and  he  sustains  in  full, 
the  general  view  taken  in  this  book  of  the  origin  of  the 
war. 


108  HOLY  SHRINES. 


CHAPTER   X 


HOLT  SHRINES. 


"  The  mystery  of  holy  shrines  lies  deep  in  human  nature. 
For,  however  the  more  spiritual  minds  may  be  able  to  rise 
and  soar,  the  common  man  during  his  mortal  career  is 
tethered  to  the  globe  that  is  his  appointed  dwelling-place ; 
and  the  more  his  affections  are  pure  and  holy,  the  more 
they  seem  to  blend  with  the  outward  and  visible  world. 
Poets  bringing  the  gifts  of  mind  to  bear  upon  human  feel- 
ings have  surrounded  the  image  of  love  with  myriads  of 
their  dazzling  fancies,  but  it  has  been  said  that  in  every 
country,  when  a  peasant  speaks  of  his  deep  love,  he  always 
says  the  same  thing.  He  always  utters  the  dear  name,  and 
then  only  says  that  he  '  worships  the  ground  she  treads.' 
It  seems  that  where  she  who  holds  the  spell  of  his  life  once 
touched  the  earth — where  the  hills  and  wooded  glen  and 
the  pebbly  banks  of  the  stream  have  in  them  the  enchant- 
ing quality  that  they  were  seen  by  him  and  by  her  when 
they  were  together — there  always  his  memory  will  cling ; 
and  it  is  in  vain  that  space  intervenes,  for  imagination 
transcendent  and  strong  of  flight  can  waft  him  from  lands 
far  away  until  he  lights  upon  the  very  path  by  the  river's 
bank  which  was  blessed  by  her  gracious  step.  Nay,  dis- 
tance will  inflame  his  fancy ;  for  if  he  be  cut  off  from  the 
sacred  ground  by  the  breadth  of  the  ocean,  or  by  vast  end- 
less desolate  tracts,  he  comes  to  know  that  deep  in  his 
bosom  there  lies  a  secret  desire  to  journey  and  journey  far, 


HOLY   SHRINES.  109 

that  lie  may  toiicli  with  fond  lips  some  mere  ledge  of  rock 
where  once  he  saw  her  foot  resting.  It  seems  that  the  im- 
pulse does  not  spring  from  any  designed  culture  of  senti- 
ment, but  from  an  honest  earthly  passion  vouchsafed  to  the 
unlettered  and  the  simple-hearted,  and  giving  them  strength 
to  pass  the  mystic  border  which  lies  between  love  and  wor- 
ship. For  men  strongly  moved  by  the  Christian  faith  it 
was  natural  to  yearn  after  the  scenes  of  the  Gospel  narra- 
tive. In  old  times  this  feeling  had  strength  to  impel  the 
chivalry  of  Europe  to  undertake  the  conquest  of  a  barren 
and  distant  land ;  and,  although  in  later  days  the  aggregate 
faith  of  the  nations  grew  chill,  and  Christendom  no  longer 
claimed  with  the  sword,  still  there  were  always  many  who 
were  willing  to  brave  toil  and  danger  for  the  sake  of  attain- 
ing to  the  actual  and  visible  Sion.  These  venturesome  men 
came  to  be  called  Pelerins  or  Pilgrims.  At  first,  as  it  would 
seem,  they  were  impelled  by  deep  feeling  acting  upon  bold 
and  resolute  natures.  Holding  close  to  the  faith  that  the 
Son  of  God,  being  also  in  mystic  sense  the  great  God  him- 
self, had  for  our  sakes  and  for  our  salvation  become  a  babe, 
growing  up  to  be  an  anxious  and  suffering  man,  and  sub- 
mitting to  be  cruelly  tortured  and  killed  by  the  hands  of 
his  own  creatures,  they  longed  to  touch  and  to  kiss  the 
spots  which  were  believed  to  be  the  silent  witnesses  of  his 
life  upon  earth,  and  of  his  cross  and  passion.  And,  since 
also  these  men  were  of  the  Churches  which  sanctioned  the 
adoration  of  the  Virgin,  they  were  taught  alike,  by  their 
conception  of  duty  and  by  nature's  low  whispering  voice, 
to  touch  and  kiss  the  holy  ground  where  Mary,  pure  and 
young,  was  ordained  to  become  the  link  between  God  and 
the  race  of  fallen  man.  And,  because  the  rocky  land 
abounded  in  recesses  and  caves  yielding  shelter  against  sun 
and  rain,  it  was  possible  for  the  Churches  to  declare,  and 
very  easy  for  trustful  men  to  believe,  that  a  hollow  in  a 
rock  at  Bethlehem  was  the  manger  which  held  the  infant 
Bedeemer,  and  that  a  grotto  at  ^N'azareth  was  the  very  home 
of  the  blessed  Virgin. 

"  Priests  fastened  upon  this  sentiment,  and  although  in 


110  HOLY   SHRINES, 

its  beginning  their  design  was  not  sordid,  they  found  them- 
selves driven  by  the  course  of  events  to  convert  the  allur- 
ing mystery  of  the  Holy  Places  into  a  soarce  of  revenue. 
The  Mahometan  invaders  had  become  by  conquest  the  lords 
of  the  ground ;  but,  since  their  own  creed  laid  great  stress 
upon  the  virtue  of  pilgrimage  to  holy  shrines,  they  willingly 
entered  into  the  feelings  of  the  Christians  who  came  to 
kneel  in  Palestine.  Moreover,  they  respected  the  self-denial 
of  monks,  and  it  was  found  that  even  in  turbulent  times  a 
convent  in  Palestine  surrounded  by  a  good  wall,  and  headed 
by  a  clever  Superior,  could  generally  hold  its  own.  It  was 
to  establishments  of  this  kind  that  the  pilgrim  looked  for 
aid  and  hospitality,  and  in  order  to  keep  them  up  the  priests 
imagined  the  plan  of  causing  the  votary  to  pay  according 
to  his  means  at  every  shrine  which  he  embraced.  Upon 
the  understanding  that  he  fulfilled  that  condition  he  was 
led  to  believe  that  he  won  unspeakable  privileges  in  the 
world  to  come,  and  thenceforth  a  pilgrimage  to  the  holy 
shrines  ceased  to  be  an  expression  of  enthusiastic  senti- 
ment, and  became  a  common  act  of  devotion. 

"  But,  since  it  happened  that,  because  of  the  manner  in 
which  the  toll  was  levied,  every  one  of  the  holy  places  was 
a  distinct  source  of  revenue,  the  prerogative  of  the  Turks  as 
owners  of  the  ground  was  necessarily  brought  into  play, 
and  it  rested  with  them  to  determine  which  of  the  rival 
Churches  should  have  the  control  and  usufruct  of  every 
holy  shrine.  Here,  then,  was  a  subject  of  lasting  strife.  So 
long  as  the  Ottoman  Empire  was  in  its  full  strength,  the 
authorities  at  Constantinople  were  governed  in  their  deci- 
sions by  the  common  appliances  of  intrigue,  and  most 
chiefly,  no  doubt,  by  gold;  but  when  the  power  of  the 
Sultans  so  waned  as  to  make  it  needful  for  them  to  contract 
engagements  with  Christian  sovereigns,  the  monks  of  one 
or  other  of  the  Churches  found  means  to  get  their  suit  up- 
held by  foreign  intervention.  In  1740  France  obtained  from 
the  Sultan  a  grant  which  had  the  force  of  a  treaty,  and  its 
articles  or  *  Capitulations,'  as  they  were  sometimes  called, 
purported  to   confirm  and  enlarge  all  the  then  existing 


HOLY  SHRINES.  HI 

privileges  of  tlie  Latin  Church  in  Palestine.  But  this  suc- 
cess was  not  closely  pursued,  for  in  the  course  of  the  suc- 
ceeding hundred  years  the  Greeks,  keenly  supported  by 
Russia,  obtained  from  the  Turkish  Government  several  fir- 
mans which  granted  them  advantages  in  derogation  of  the 
treaty  with  France ;  and  until  the  middle  of  this  century 
France  acquiesced. 

"  In  the  contest  now  about  to  be  raised  between  France 
and  Russia,  it  would  be  wrong  to  suppose  that,  so  far  as 
concerned  strength  of  motive  and  sincerity  of  purpose,  there 
was  any  approach  to  an  equality  between  the  contending 
Governments.  In  the  Greek  Church  the  right  of  pilgrim- 
age is  held  to  be  of  such  deep  import  that  if  a  family  can 
command  the  means  of  journeying  to  Palestine  even  from 
the  far  distant  provinces  of  Russia,  they  can  scarcely  retain 
the  sensation  of  being  truly  devout  without  undertaking 
the  holy  enterprise ;  and  to  this  end  the  fruits  of  parsimony 
and  labor  enduring  through  all  the  best  years  of  manhood 
are  joyfully  devoted.  The  compassing  of  vast  distances 
with  the  narrow  means  at  the  command  of  a  peasant  is  not 
achieved  without  suffering  so  great  as  to  destroy  many 
lives.  This  danger  does  not  deter  the  brave,  pious  people 
of  the  ISTorth.  As  the  reward  of  their  sacrifices,  their 
priests,  speaking  boldly  in  the  name  of  Heaven,  promise 
them  ineffable  blessings.  The  advantages  held  out  are  not 
understood  to  be  dependent  upon  the  volition  and  motive 
of  the  pilgrim,  for  they  hold  good,  as  baptism  does,  for 
children  of  tender  years.  Of  course,  every  man  who  thus 
came  from  afar  to  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  was 
the  representative  of  many  more  who  would  do  the  like  if 
they  could.  When  the  Emperor  of  Russia  sought  to  gain 
or  to  keep  for  his  Church  the  holy  shrines  of  Palestine,  he 
spoke  on  behalf  of  fifty  millions  of  brave,  pious,  devoted 
subjects,  of  whom  thousands  for  the  sake  of  the  cause  would 
joyfully  risk  their  lives.  From  the  serf  in  his  hut  even  up 
to  the  great  Czar  himself,  the  faith  professed  was  the  faith 
really  glowing  in  the  heart,  and  violently  swaying  the  will. 
It  was  the  part  of  wise  statesmen  to  treat  with  much  defer- 


112  HOLY   SHRINES. 

ence  an  honest  and  pions  desire  which  was  rooted  thua 
deep  in  the  bosom  of  the  Russian  people. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  the  Latin  Church  seems  not  to  have 
inculcated  pilgrimage  so  earestly  as  its  Eastern  rival ;  and 
if  it  did,  it  obtained  but  slight  compliance  with  its  precept ; 
for  while  the  Greek  pilgrim  ships  poured  out  upon  the 
landing-place  of  Jaffa  the  multitudes  of  those  who  had 
survived  the  misery  and  the  trials  of  the  journey,  the  closest 
likeness  of  a  pilgrim  which  the  Latin  Church  could  supply 
was  often  a  mere  French  tourist,  with  a  journey  and  a 
theory,  and  a  plan  of  writing  a  book.  It  was  true  that  the 
French  Foreign  Office  had  from  time  to  time  followed  up  those 
claims  to  protect  the  Latin  Church  in  the  East  which  had 
arisen  in  the  times  when  the  mistresses  of  the  Most  Chris- 
tian kings  were  pious ;  but  it  was  understood  that  by  the 
course  of  her  studies  in  the  eighteenth  century  France  had 
obtained  a  tight  control  over  her  religious  feelings.  When- 
ever she  put  forward  a  claim  in  her  character  as  *  the  eldest 
daughter  of  the  Church,'  men  treated  her  demand  as  politi- 
cal, and  dealt  with  it  accordingly ;  but  as  to  the  religious 
pretension  on  which  it  was  based,  Europe  always  met  that 
with  a  smile,  yet  it  will  presently  be  seen  that  a  claim 
which  tried  the  gravity  of  diplomatists  might  be  used  as  a 
puissant  engine  of  mischief. 

"  There  was  repose  in  the  empire  of  the  Sultan,  and  even 
the  rival  Churches  of  Jerusalem  were  suffering  each  other 
to  rest,  when  the  French  President,  in  cold  blood,  and  under 
no  new  motive  for  action,  took  up  the  forgotten  cause  of 
the  Latin  Church  of  Jerusalem,  and  began  to  apply  it  as  a 
wedge  for  sundering  the  peace  of  the  world. 

"The  French  Ambassador  at  Constantinople  was  in- 
structed to  demand  that  the  grants  to  the  Latin  Church 
which  were  contained  in  the  treaty  of  1740  should  be 
strictly  executed,  and,  since  the  firmans  granted  during  the 
last  century  to  the  Greek  Church  were  inconsistent  with 
the  capitulations  of  1740,  and  had  long  been  in  actual  oper- 
ation, the  effect  of  this  demand  on  the  part  of  the  French 
President  was  to  force  the  Sultan  to  disturb  the  existing 


HOLY   SHRINES.  118 

state  of  repose,  to  annul  the  privileges  whicli  (with  the  ac- 
quiescence of  France)  the  Greek  Church  had  long  been 
enjoying,  to  drive  into  frenzy  the  priesthood  of  the  Greek 
Church,  and  to  rouse  to  indignation  the  Sovereign  of  the 
great  military  empire  of  the  North,  with  all  those  millions 
of  pious  and  devoted  men  who  so  far  as  regarded  this  ques- 
tion were  heart  and  soul  with  their  Czar.  *  The  Ambas- 
*sador  of  France,'  said  our   Foreign  Secretary,   'was  the 

*  first  to  disturb  the  status  quo  in  which  the  matter  rested. 

*  l^ot  that  the  disputes  of  the  Latin  and  the  Greek  Churches 

*  were  not  very  active,  but  that  without  some  political  ac- 

*  tion  on  the  part  of  France,  those  quarrels  would  never 

*  have  troubled  the  relations  of  friendly  Powers.  If  report 
*is  to  be  believed,  the  French  Ambassador  was  the  first  to 
'speak  of  having  recourse  to  force,  and  to  threaten  the  in- 
'  tervention  of  a  French  fleet  to  enforce  the  demands  of  his 
'country.    We  should  deeply  regret  any  dispute  that  might 

*  lead  to  conflict  between  two  of  the  great  Powers  of  Europe ; 
'  but  when  we  reflect  that  the  quarrel  is  for  exclusive  privi- 
'  leges  in  a  spot  near  which  the  heavenly  host  proclaimed 
'  peace  on  earth  and  good- will  towards  men — when  we  see 
'  rival  Churches  contending  for  mastery  in  the  very  place 

*  where  Christ  died  for  mankind — the  thought  of  such  a' 

'  spectacle  is  melancholy  indeed Both  parties  ought 

'to  refrain  from  putting  armies  and  fleets  in  motion  for 
'the  purpose  of  making  the  tomb  of  Christ  a  cause  of 
'  quarrel  among  Christians.'* 

"  Still,  in  a  narrow  and  technical  point  of  view,  the  claim^ 
of  France  might  be  upheld,  because  it  was  based  upon  a 
treaty  between  France  and  the  Porte  which  could  not  be 
legally  abrogated  without  the  consent  of  the  French  Gov- 
ernment;  and  the  concessions  to  the  Greek  Church,  though 
obtained  at  the  instance  of  Kussia,  had  not  been  put  into 
the  form  of  treaty  engagements,  and  could  always  be  re- 
voked at  the  pleasure  of  the  Sultan.  Accordingly,  M.  der 
Lavalette  continued  to  press  for  the    strict  fulfillment  of 

♦'Eaatern  Papers/  part  i.,  page  67. 


114  HOLY   SHRINES. 

the  treaty,  and  being  guided,  as  it  would  seem,  by  violent 
instructions,  and  being  also  zealous  and  unskilled,  he  soon 
carried  his  urgency  to  the  extremity  of  using  offensive 
threats,  and  began  to  speak  of  what  should  be  done  by 
the  French  fleet.  The  Russian  Envoy,  better  versed  in 
affairs,  used  wiser  but  hardly  less  cogent  words,  requiring 
that  the  firmans  should  remain  in  force ;  and,  since  no  in- 
genuity could  reconcile  the  engagements  of  the  treaty  with 
the  grants  contained  in  the  firmans,  the  Porte,  though  hav- 
ing no  interest  of  its  own  in  the  question,  was  tortured  and 
alarmed  by  the  contending  negotiators.  It  seemed  almost 
impossible  to  satisfy  France  without  affronting  the  Emperor 
Nicholas. 

"  The  French,  however,  did  not  persist  in  claiming  up 
to  the  very  letter  of  the  treaty  of  1740,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  there  were  some  of  the  powers  of  exclusion  granted 
by  the  firmans  which  the  Greeks  could  be  persuaded  to 
forego;  and  thus  the  subject  remaining  in  dispute  was  nar- 
rowed down  until  it  seemed  almost  too  slender  for  the  ap- 
prehension of  laymen. 

"  Stated  in  bare  terms,  the  question  was  whether,  for  the 
purpose  of  passing  through  the  building  into  their  Grotto, 
the  Latin  monks  should  have  the  key  of  the  chief  door 
of  the  Church  of  Bethlehem,  and  also  one  of  the  keys  of 
each  of  the  two  doors  of  the  sacred  manger,*  and  whether 
they  should  be  at  liberty  to  place  in  the  sanctuary  of  the 
Nativity  a  silver  star  adorned  with  the  arms  of  France. 
The  Latins  also  claimed  a  privilege  of  worshiping  once  a 
year  at  the  shrine  of  the  Blessed  Mary  in  the  Church  of 
Gethsemane ;  and  they  went  on  to  assert  their  right  to  have 
*a  cupboard  and  a  lamp  in  the  tomb  of  the  Virgin,'  but 
in  this  last  pretension  they  were  not  well  supported  by 
France,!  and  virtually,  it  was  their  claim  to  have  a  key  of 
the  great  door  of  the  Church  of  Bethlehem  instead  of  being 
put  off  with  a  key  of  the  lesser  door,  which  long  remained 

♦  *  Eastern  Papers,'  part  i.,  p.  84.  f  Ibid.,  p.  48. 


HOLY  SHRINES.     '  115^ 

insoluble,  and  had  to  be  decided  by  the  advance  of  armies,* 
and  the  threatening  movement  of  fleets. 

"  Diplomacy,  somewhat  startled  at  the  nature  of  the  ques- 
tion committed  to  its  charge,  but  repressing  the  coarse 
emotion  of  surprise,  *  ventured,'  as  it  is  said,  *  to  inquire 

*  whether  in  this  case  a  key  meant  an  instrument  for  open- 

*  ing  a  door,  only  not  to  be  employed  in  closing  that  door 

*  against  Christians  of  other  sects,  or  whether  it  was  simply 
a  key  — an  emblem  ;'t  but  diplomacy  answered,  that  the 
key  was  really  a  key — a  key  for  opening  a  door,  and  its 
evil  quality  was — not  that  it  kept  the  Greeks  out,  but  that 
it  let  the  Latins  come  in. 

"  After  the  change  which  was  wrought  in  the  institutions 
of  France  in  the  night  between  the  1st  and  the  2nd  of  De- 
cember, 1851,  increased  violence  seems  to  have  been  im- 
parted to  the  instructions  under  which  M.  de  Lavalette  was 
acting,  and  his  demand  was  so  urgently  pressed  that  the 
Porte  at  length  gave  way,  and  acknowledged  the  validity 
of  the  Latin  claims  in  a  formal  IS'ote  ;I  but  the  paper  had 
not  been  signed  more  than  a  few  days,  when  the  Russian 
Minister,  making  hot  remonstrance,  caused  the  Porte  to 
issue  a  firman,! I  ratifying  all  the  existing  privileges  of  the 
G-reeks,  and  virtually  revoking  the  acknowledgment  just 
given  to  the  Latins.  Thereupon,  as  was  natural,  the  French 
Government  became  indignant,  and  to  escape  its  anger  the 
Porte  promised  to  evade  the  public  reading  of  the  firman 
at  Jerusalem  ;§  but  the  Russian  Minister,  not  relaxing  his 
zeal,  the  Turkish  Government  secretly  promised  him  that 
the  Pasha  of  Jerusalem  should  be  instructed  to  try  to  avoid 
giving  up  the  keys  to  the  Latin  monks. 

Then  again,  under  further  pressure  by  France,  the  Porte 
engaged  to  evade  this  last  evasion,  and  at  length  the  duty 
of  affecting  to  carry  out  the  conflicting  engagements  thus 
made  by  the  Porte  was  entrusted  to  Afif  Bey.     This  calm 

♦  See  Count  Nesselrode's  Dispatclies,  ibid.,  p.  61.  f  Ibid.,  p.  79. 

t  Note  of  the  19th  February,  1852. 

fl  The  firman  of  the  mi-fevrier,  1852. 

2  Col.  Rose  to  Lord  Malmesburj.    '  Eaatern  Papers,*  part  i.,  p.  46. 


116  HOLY   SHRINES. 

Mahometan  went  to  Jerusalem,  and  strove  to  temporize  as 
well  as  he  could  betwixt  the  angry  Churches.  His  great 
difficulty  was  to  avert  the  rage  which  the  Greeks  would  be 
likely  to  feel  when  they  came  to  know  that  the  firman  was 
not  to  be  read;  and  the  nature  of  his  little  stratagem 
showed  that,  although  he  was  a  benighted  Moslem,  he  had 
some  insight  into  the  great  ruling  principle  of  ecclesiastical 
questions.  His  plan  was  to  inflict  a  bitter  disappointment 
upon  the  Latins  in  the  presence  of  the  Greek  priesthood, 
for  he  imagined  that  in  their  delight  at  witnessing  the  mor- 
tification of  their  rivals,  the  Greeks  might  be  made  to  over- 
look the  great  question  of  the  public  reading  of  the  firman. 
So,  as  soon  as  the  ceremonial  visits  had  been  exchanged, 
Afif  Bey,  with  a  suite  of  the  local  Effendis,  met  the  three 
Patriarchs,  Greek,  Latin,  and  Arminian,  in  the  Church  of 
the  Resurrection  just  in  front  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  itself, 
and  under  the  great  dome,  and  there  he  '  made  an  oration 
'upon  the  desire  of  his  Majesty  the  Sultan  to  gratify  all 
'  classes  of  his  subjects,'  and  when  M.  Easily  and  the  Greek 
Patriarch,  and  the  Russian  Archimandrite  were  becoming 
impatient  for  the  public  reading  of  the  firman  which  was 
to  give  to  their  Church  the  whole  of  the  Christian  sanctu- 
aries of  Jerusalem,  the  Bey  invited  all  the  disputants  to 
meet  him  in  the  Church  of  the  Virgin  near  Gethsemane. 
There  he  read  an  order  of  the  Sultan  for  permitting  the 
Latins  to  celebrate  a  mass  once  a  year,  but  then,  to  the 
great  joy  of  the  Greeks,  and  to  the  horror  of  their  rivals, 
he  went  on  to  read  words  commanding  that  the  altar  and 
its  ornaments  should  remain  undisturbed.  'iTo  sooner,' 
says  the  official  account,  '  were  these  words  uttered,  than 

*  the  Latin,  who  had  come  to  receive  their  triumph  over  the 

*  Orientals,  broke  out  into  loud  exclamations  of  the  impos- 
*sibility  of  celebrating  mass  upon  a    schismatic  slab  of 

*  marble,  with  a  covering  of  silk  and  gold  instead  of  plain 
'  linen,  among  schismatic  vases,  and  before  a  crucifi^x  which 
*has  the  feet  separated  instead  of  one  nailed  over  the 
'  other.'  Under  cover  of  the  storm  thus  raised,  Afif  Bey 
perhaps   thought  for  a  moment  that  he  had  secured  hia 


HOLY  SHRINES.  117 

escape,  and  for  awhile  he  seems  to  have  actually  disen- 
tangled himself  from  the  Churches,  and  to  have  succeeded 
in  gaining  his  quarters. 

'*  But  when  the  delight  of  witnessing  the  discomfiture  of 
the  Latins  had  in  some  degree  subsided,  the  G-reeks  per- 
ceived that,  after  all  the  main  promise  had  been  evaded. 
The  firman  had  not  been  read.  M.  Easily,  the  Eussian 
Consul-General,  called  on  Afif  Bey,  and  required  that  the 
reading  of  the  firman  should  take  place.  At  first  the  Bey 
afifected  not  to  know  what  firman  was  meant,  but  after- 
ward he  said  he  had  no  copy  of  it ;  and  at  length,  being 
then  at  the  end  of  his  strategems,  he  acknowledged  that 
he  had  no  instructions  to  read  it.  Thereupon  M.  Basily 
sent  off  Prince  Garan  to  Jaffa  to  convey  these  tidings  to 
Constantinople  in  any  Arab  vessel  that  could  be  found, 
and  then  hurrying  to  the  Pasha  of  Jerusalem,  he  demanded 
to  have  a  special  council  assembled,  with  himself  and  the 
Greek  Patriarch  in  attendance,  in  order  that  Russia  and 
the  Orthodox  Church  might  know  once  for  all  whether  the 
firman  had  been  sent  or  not;  but  when  the  meeting  was 
gathered,  Hafiz  Pasha  only  *  made  a  smooth  speech  on  the 
'well  known  benevolence  of  his  Majesty  toward  all  classes 
'of  his  subjects,  and  that  was  all  that  could  be  said.'*  So 
the  Greeks,  though  they  had  been  soothed  for  a  moment 
by  the  discomfiture  of  their  Latin  adversaries  in  the  Church 
of  the  Virgin,  could  not  any  longer  fail  to  see  that  their 
rivals  were  in  the  ascendent,  and  it  soon  turned  out  that 
the  promise  to  evade  the  delivery  of  the  keys  was  not  to 
be  faithfully  kept. 

"  The  pressure  of  France  was  applied  with  increasing 
force,  and  it  produced  its  effect.  In  the  month  of  Decem- 
ber, 1852,  the  silver  star  was  brought  with  much  pomp  from 
the  coast.  Some  of  the  Moslem  Effendis  went  down  to 
Jaffa  to  escort  it,  and  others  rode  out  a  good  way  on  the 
road  that  they  might  bring  it  into  Jerusalem  with  triumph ; 
and  on  Wednesday,  the  22nd  of  the  same  month,  the  Latin 

•  Consul  Finn  to  Earl  of  Malmeabury,  October  27,  1852.  *  Correspondence,* 
part  i.,  p.  4A, 


118  HOLY  SHRINES. 

Patriarch,  with  joy  and  a  great  ceremony,  replaced  the 
glittering  star  in  the  sanctuary  of  Bethlehem,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  key  of  the  great  door  of  the  church,  together 
with  the  keys  of  the  sacred  manger,  was  handed  over  to 
the  Latins."* 

The  Kussian  Government  was  right  therefore  in  viewing 
this  conflict  as  a  religious  one,  and  declared  truthfully  that 
it  took  up  arms  in  defense  of  the  national  religion.  The 
Russians  evidently  believed  this  to  be  true,  and  the  Russian 
soldiers  were  fired  with  religious  enthusiasm  in  addition  to 
their  love  of  country. 

These  are  dangerous  elements  to  cope  with,  especially 
when  an  army  thus  excited  is  scientifically  directed,  and 
supplied  with  every  weapon  of  destruction  known  to  modern 
war.  This  was  sufficiently  shown  by  the  wonderful  defense 
of  Sebastopol.  But  it  was  declared  that  the  Russian  Gov- 
ernment imposed  upon  the  people,  and  without  cause  mad- 
dened them  with  a  fanaticism  whose  only  purpose  was  to 
stimulate  them  for  the  conflict. 


*  Consul  Finn  to  Earl  of  Malmesbury,  Dec.  28,  1852 ;  but  see  Mr.  Pisani'^ 
note,  p.  106.  > 


THE  EELIGIOUS  ASPECT  OP  THE  EASTERN  WAR.  119 


CHAPTER    X. 


THE  BELIGIOUS  ASPECT  OF  THE  EASTEBN  WAB. 

The  idea  was  contemptuously  scouted  that  the  struggle 
was  in  any  sense  to  be  regarded  as  a  religious  war.  Eut 
notwithstanding  these  confident  assertions,  the  facts  in  the 
case,  as  they  will  appear  to  any  candid  observer  who  will 
view  the  present  in  the  light  thrown  over  it  from  the  past, 
will  disclose  a  religious  aspect  to  this  contest  as  clearly 
marked  as  its  commercial  phase,  and  even  more  important. 
Russia  is  guilty  of  no  falsehood  when  she  asserts  that  the 
war  was  directed  against  her  national  faith.  Such  were  not 
the  motives  of  England ;  as  stated  in  a  preceding  chapter, 
she  was  swayed  by  commercial  considerations  almost  exclu- 
sively, holding  herself  indiiferent  alike  to  the  Greek  Church, 
Romanism,  or  Mohammedanism ;  or  rather  choosing,  as 
she  has  deliberately  avowed,  that  the  power  of  the  Papacy 
should  be  revived  in  Europe  under  France,  than  that  Russia 
should  not  be  humbled. 

The  real  character  of  the  war  can  not  be  fully  understood 
without  a  careful  study  of  its  religious  bearings,  and  of  the 
present  religious  aspect  of  Europe,  and  this  investigation 
should  include  at  least  the  outline  of  the  history  of  the 
Greek  and  Latin  Churches.  Whoever  undertakes  to  ex- 
plain "  the  Eastern  Question"  without  giving  a  prominent 
position  to  the  relations  of  these  churches  to  each  other, 
will  only  deceive  himself  and  others.  It  belongs  in  part  to 
the  quarrel  of  the  Ages  between  the  East  and  the  West. 


120     THE  RELIGIOUS  ASPECT  OP  THE  EASTERN  WAR. 

The  history  and  character  of  the  Greek  Church  are  com  • 
paratively  little  known  to  the  mass  of  the  American  people, 
Far  removed  from  the  theater  of  its  life,  we  have  had  little 
occasion  to  study  its  nature  or  its  movements. 

"With  Protestantism  and  Romanism  only  before  our  eyes, 
it  has  scarcely  occurred  to  us  that  there  is  still  another 
branch  of  the  original  Church  which  has  not  only  been  an 
important  actor  in  the  history  of  the  past,  but  occupies  a 
prominent  place  in  the  present,  and  must  from  its  numbers 
and  power  influence  largely  the  future.  We  have,  and 
with  good  reason,  been  chiefly  interested  in  the  movements 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  whose  emissaries  swarm 
around  us,  intent  here  as  elsewhere,  upon  schemes  for  the 
overthrow  of  all  power  which  stands  opposed  to  Rome. 
We  have  been  fully  employed  in  defending  our  institutions, 
our  liberties  and  the  faith  of  our  fathers,  from  the  Jesuits 
and  priests  that  fill  our  land  with  their  intrigues,  and  little 
thought  has  been  bestoAved  upon  the  Greek  Church,  and 
little  has  been  known  of  it  aside  from  the  facts  communi- 
cated by  our  missionaries,  who  have  come  in  contact  with 
it  at  Constantinople  and  at  Athens. 

These,  however,  are  but  fragments,  and  deeply  corrupted 
ones,  of  the  ancient  body,  while  it  is  the  Russian  Church, 
fifty  millions  strong,  which  has  taken  its  place  among  the 
great  religious  Powers  of  earth,  and  which  is  now  in  reality 
the  Greek  Church.  Its  character  must  be  studied  not  at 
Constantinople,  nor  at  Athens,  but  at  home ;  for  the  policy 
of  the  Russian  Church  will  in  the  end  give  direction  and 
character  to  all.  Because  there  has  been  persecution  at 
Constantinople  and  Athens,  it  is  ungenerous  and  deceptive 
to  assume  that  the  Russian  Church  is  actuated  by  a  similar 
spirit,  and  so  endeavor  to  arouse  against  her  the  hatred  of 
the  world.  Let  the  Church  of  Russia  be  judged  by  its 
acts. 

A  majority  of  readers  will  probably  be  better  prepared  to 
understand  this  portion  of  our  subject,  if  their  attention  is 
first  directed  to  some  prominent  facts  in  the  history  of  the 
Greek  and  Latin  Churches,  and  the  Eastern  and  Western 


THE  RELIGIOUS  ASPECT  OP  THE  EASTERN  WAR.     121 

empires.  Through  these  the  origin  and  true  character  of 
the  war,  and  the  actual  position  of  Russia  will  appear. 
Although  the  scholar  will  find  here  only  the  most  familiar 
facts,  yet  it  is  believed  that  those  who  have  little  leisure 
for  the  investigation  of  such  subjects,  will  derive  some 
benefit  from  this  brief  epitome  of  a  portion  of  history. 

The  Church  of  Christ  was  for  some  centuries  a  united 
body.  From  the  regions  beyond  the  Euphrates,  westward 
to  its  utmost  limits,  in  what  is  now  western  Europe,  it  was 
one  undivided  whole,  its  thousands  of  local  churches  belong- 
ing to  one  communion.  Then,  also,  one  civil  power  ruled 
over  all  the  theater  of  the  old  civilization,  and  its  one  capi- 
tal city  was  Rome.  As  was  perfectly  natural,  the  Bishops 
of  the  principal  cities  in  the  Roman  Empire  felt  an  import- 
ance proportioned  to  the  positions  which  they  occupied, 
and  the  prelates  of  Jerusalem,  Antioch,  Alexandria,  Rome, 
and  Constantinople,  were  jealous  of  each  other's  power, 
and  struggled  for  the  supremacy.  The  Bishop  of  Rome, 
located  at  the  Capital  of  the  Empire,  possessed  great  advan- 
tages over  his  competitors,  and  soon  secured  for  himself  a 
proud  pre-eminence,  though  not  an  undisputed  one,  among 
his  jealous  rivals. 

He  early  asserted  for  himself  the  Primacy  in  the  Church, 
and  claimed  the  distinction  of  Universal  Bishop.  The  pre- 
lates of  Rome  neglected  no  acts  by  which  the  power  of  the 
Other  Metropolitans  of  the  Empire  could  be  diminished  and 
their  own  increased.  They  claimed  nothing  less  than  the 
supreme  dominion  of  the  world,  and  each  year  brought  them 
nearer  to  the  accomplishment  of  their  purpose.  At  last  the 
contest  was  narrowed  down  to  the  Bishops  of  Rome  and 
Constantinople,  which  latter  city  having  been  made  the 
Capital  of  the  Roman  Empire,  by  Constantine,  soon  rivaled 
and  even  eclipsed  both  the  splendor  and  power  of  Rome. 
The  Roman  Pontiff  found  himself  confronted  in  the  East 
by  a  most  formidable  rival,  wielding  all  those  advantages 
which  belong  to  the  metropolis  of  a  great  empire,  and 
which  Rome  had  hitherto  exclusively  enjoyed. 

The  Bishop  of  Constantinople  now  naturally  hoped  to 


122  THE   RELIGIOUS   ASPECT   OP   THE  EASTERN  WAR. 

hold  himself  the  position  of  Universal  Pontiff,  and  boldly 
asserted  his  claim  to  exclusive  dominion  over  the  Church. 
The  proud  prelate  at  Rome,  however,  was  by  no  means  in- 
clined to  abate  one  tittle  of  his  loftiest  pretentions.  A  bitter 
quarrel  between  the  two  ensued,  which  was  handed  down 
to  their  successors — a  contest  between  the  East  and  the 
West,  between  the  Latins  and  the  Greek  race.  The  Pre- 
lates denounced,  and  even  excommunicated  each  other,  and 
bitter  hatred  sprung  up  and  was  cherished  by  the  contend- 
ing parties.  Disputes  of  various  kinds  continually  widened 
the  breach. 

The  genius  of  Hildebrand  conceived  for  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church  that  stupendous  scheme  of  universal  dominion, 
both  over  the  Church  and  over  the  governments  of  the 
world,  which  from  his  time  has  shaped  the  unvarying 
policy  of  the  Papacy,  which  distinguishes  its  vast  ambition 
both  from  the  Greek  Church  and  every  other  body  bearing 
the  Christian  name,  and  which  directs  her  every  effort, 
whether  in  her  hour  of  weakness  or  of  strength,  to  the 
subjugation  of  the  world.  As  a  consequence  of  her  settled 
policy,  the  Eoman  Catholic  Pontiff*  never  ceased  to  claim 
authority  over  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople,  nor  abandoned 
the  design  of  finally  subduing  his  power. 

It  is  probably  sufficient  for  the  present  purpose  to  state 
results,  without  dwelling  upon  the  progress  of  events.  An 
entire  separation  was  finally  produced  between  the  East 
and  the  West — ^between  the  Greeks  and  Latins,  or  Roman 
Catholics.  Constantinople  remained  the  actual  capital  of 
the  Roman  Empire,  and  head  of  the  Eastern  or  Greek 
Church,  while  the  Pope  at  Rome  was  head  of  the  Latin 
Church,  the  Church  of  the  West.  The  western,  or  Latin, 
portion  of  the  Roman  Empire  was  overrun  by  the  Northern 
Barbarians,  and  when  out  of  its  ruins  several  small  king- 
doms sprung  up  in  western  Europe,  Charlemagne  united 
them  all  in  one  empire,  of  which  France  was  the  head. 

There  was  then  a  Greek  Empire  and  a  Greek  Church, 
whose  chief  city  was  Constantinople,  and  a  western  Latin 
Empire  under  the  crown  of  France,  and  a  western  Latin 


THE   RELIGIOUS   ASPECT   OF   THE   EASTERN  WAR.  123 

Churcli,  whose  head  was  the  Pope  at  Eome.  The  world 
was  divided  between  the  contending  interests  of  the  Greeks 
and  Latins.  When  the  countries  which  now  form  portions 
of  the  Russian  Empire  were  converted  to  Christianity,  they 
united  themselves  mainly  with  the  Greek  Church,  and  so 
from  the  earliest  times  Russia  has  been  allied  by  religious 
sympathies  with  the  East,  and  as  such  has  been  opposed 
and  hated  by  the  Latin  Powers  and  Papal  Church. 

The  constant  effort  of  the  Pope  has  been  to  bring  the 
East  into  subjection  to  the  power  of  Rome,  and  force  and 
fraud  have  been  alike  freely  employed  to  extend  over  Con- 
stantinople the  influence  of  the  Papacy.  This  hatred  of  the 
Greek  Church  and  Empire  was  carried  to  such  a  height, 
that  in  the  time  of  the  Crusades,  the  Latin  or  Roman  Cath- 
olic Crusaders  turned  away  from  their  attempts  to  recover 
Jerusalem  from  the  Turks,  and  besieged,  captured  and  pil- 
laged Constantinople,  with  the  double  purpose  of  centering 
its  Eastern  commerce  upon  the  Roman  Catholic  cities  of  the 
western  Mediterranean,  and  of  subjecting  the  Greek  Church 
to  the  power  of  the  Pope. 

Erom  this  severe  blow  Constantinople  did  not  recover. 
The  Eastern  Empire  had  been  previously  partly  spoiled  of 
its  provinces — ^first  by  the  Arabs,  and  then  by  the  Seljukian 
Turks ;  it  grew  weaker  and  weaker,  and  with  the  capture 
of  Constantinople  by  the  Ottomans,  in  1453,  the  Greek 
Empire  and  Greek  Church  fell  and  disappeared  together. 
The  fragments  of  the  Greek  Church  proper  now  found 
within  the  limits  of  the  Turkish  Empire  are  the  descend- 
ants of  the  remnant  which  escaped  the  ferocity  of  the  Mus- 
sulman conquerors. 

For  four  hundred  years,  the  fiercest  foe  that  Christianity 
ever  encountered  has  been  encamped  in  Europe  on  the 
ruins  of  the  Empire  and  the  Church,  which  he  trampled 
scornfully  out  in  tears  and  blood,  filling  with  cruelty  and 
oppression,  and  withering  up  the  beauty  and  fertility  of 
some  of  the  loveliest  portions  of  the  earth;  and  now,  with 
the  shocking  barbarities  of  a  thousand  years  from  the  time 
of  the  rise  of  Mohammedanism  ringing  in  the  ears  of  aU 


124     THE  RELIGIOUS  ASPECT  OP  THE  EASTERN  WAR. 

Christendom — with  the  blood  and  tears  of  millions  of  mur- 
dered Christians,  victims  of  Turkish  lust  and  fury,  crying 
unto  God  from  that  fair  but  desolated  land — American 
Christians  are  called  upon  to  pray  for  the  preservation  of 
Turkey,  to  pray  that  the  devastating  deluge  of  Moham- 
medanism might  not  ebb  away  from  the  plains  of  Europe. 

But  while  Constantinople  was  trodden  under  foot  by  the 
Turks,  and  the  Eastern  Empire  spoiled,  and  while  the 
western  world  was  prostrate  at  the  Papal  throne,  God  was 
nursing  a  new  power  in  the  regions  of  the  unknown  E'orth, 
which  was  to  bring  once  more  the  Greek  Church,  in  a 
most  imposing  form,  upon  the  world's  theater,  and  open 
before  it  another  career  of  greatness.  Russia  adopted,  from 
the  first,  the  Greek  faith  and  worship,  and  of  course  in- 
herited the  Eastern  quarrel  with  the  Romish  Church,  and 
was  cordially  hated  in  return  by  the  Catholic  Powers  of 
the  West,  especially  by  the  Pope. 

She  looked  to  Constantinople,  as  the  Catholics  regarded 
Rome.  There  was  Russia's  mother  Church,  and  there  was 
her  holy  city.  From  the  time  of  the  conquest  of  Constan- 
tinople by  the  Turks,  Russia  meditated  their  expulsion 
from  Europe,  and  the  regaining  of  her  Holy  City,  which, 
like  "  Holy  Moscow,"  at  home,  stirred  the  religious  sym- 
pathies of  her  people. 

This  fact  is  thus  stated  in  Blackwood's  Magazine^  for 
July,  1855  : 

"  The  close  of  the  reign  of  Yassili  III.  was  marked  by 
the  taking  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks.  This  event 
made  a  great  sensation  in  Russia.  *  Greece,'  says  Karam- 
sin,  *  was  a  second  mother  country  to  us ;  the  Russians 
always  recollected  with  gratitude  that  they  owed  her 
Christianity,  the  rudiments  of  the  arts,  and  many  amenities 
of  social  life.  In  the  town  of  Moscow,  people  spoke  of 
Constantinople  as  in  modern  Europe  they  spoke  of  Paris 
under  Louis  XIY.'  It  is  among  the  annalists  of  that  epoch 
that  a  remarkable  prophecy  was  found,  on  the  strength  of 
which  modern  aggression  on  Turkey  appears  justifiable 
both  to  the  church  and  state  of  Russia.     The  annalist,  after 


THE  KELIGIOUS   ASPECT   OP   THE   EASTERN  WAR.  125 

mourning  over  the  misfortunes  of  Constantinople,  adds: 

*  There  remains  now  no  orthodox  empire  but  that  of  the 

*  Russians;  we  see  how  the  predictions  of  St  Methodius 
*and  St.  Leon  the  Sage  are  accomplished,  who  long  ago 

*  announced  that  the  sons  of  Ishmael  should  conquer  By- 

*  zantium.     Perhaps  we  are  destined  also  to  see  the  accom- 

*  plishment  of  that  prophecy  which  promises  the  Eussians 
'that  they  shall  triumph  over  the  children  of  Ishmael,  and 

*  reign  over  the  seven  hills  of  Constantinople.'  It  is  worth 
while  for  us  to  consider,  now  that  this  prophecy,  since  the 
taking  of  Byzantium  by  the  Turks,  has  become  a  fixed  and 
ruling  idea  with  the  Russian  people^  quite  as  much  as  that 
of  restoration  to  Judea  is  to  the  Jews.  The  priests  and 
popes  have  taken  good  care  to  keep  it  up  for  their  own 
purposes,  as  well  as  those  of  their  masters,  the  Czars ;  and 
when  we  take  the  superstition  of  this  people  into  consider- 
ation, it  is  easily  seen  what  a  powerful  lever  the  real  or 
feigned  existence  of  such  a  prophecy  must  put  into  the 
hands  of  those  whose  object  it  is  to  move  the  Muscovite 
race." 

This  feeling  has  strengthened  with  the  increasing  power 
of  Russia,  and  it  evinces  no  unusual  degree  of  national 
ambition  or  vanity  that  now,  with  fifty  millions  of  Greek 
Christians  within  her  own  dominions,  and  twelve  millions 
more  in  Turkey  affiliated  to  her  by  a  kindred  worship,  and 
with  a  million  of  soldiers  at  her  disposal,  she  should  regard 
herself  as  the  proper  head  of  the  Greek  Church,  the  de- 
fender of  its  faith,  the  representative  of  the  Eastern  Empire, 
and  as  commissioned  to  recover  and  to  hold  Constantinople. 
These  facts,  though  they  justify  no  wrong  which  Russia 
may  have  committed,  yet  serve  to  explain  her  policy,  and 
to  show  why  it  is  that  she  seems  determined  to  construct 
for  herself,  even  over  prostrate  nations,  a  highway  to  Con- 
stantinople and  the  East. 

The  following  statement  is  also  quoted  from  Blackwood: 
"  Ivan  lY.  was  crowned  by  the  Metropolitan,  and  salutea 
by  the  Byzantine  title  of  Autocrat.     Thus  it  seems  that  he 
wished  to  be  recognized  as  the  heir  of  the  defunct  Greek 


126  THE   RELIGIOUS    ASPECT   OF   THE   EASTERN  WAR. 

sovereignty,  and  the  master  dejure,  if  not  de  facto,  of  By- 
zantium. These  are  important  facts,  because  they  show 
that  the  idea  of  the  acquisition  of  Turkey  does  not  merely 
date  from  the  time  of  Peter,  but  has  been  a  fixed  prin- 
ciple of  action  with  Russian  sovereigns  ever  since  the  fall 
of  the  Lower  Empire.  We  can  not  help  considering  the 
other  encroachments  of  E-ussia  on  the  map  of  Europe  as  in 
a  measure  incidental,  brought  about  often  by  an  unforeseen 
concurrence  of  circumstances,  at  the  same  time  eagerly 
caught  at  by  the  nation  as  a  means  to  this  one  great  end, 
the  possession  of  Constantinople,  and  the  centralization  of 
all  the  Russias  and  their  dependencies  in  the  great  capital 
on  the  Bosphorus.  This  has  been  and  is  the  one  definite 
and  distinct  object  of  the  ambition  of  the  Czars,  the  avarice 
of  the  courtiers,  and  the  fanaticism  of  the  people.  That 
Russia  or  her  sovereigns  ever  had  any  distinct  design  of 
conquering  and  absorbing  the  west  of  Europe  we  can  hardly 
believe,  although  such  would  doubtless  be  to  her  a  consum- 
mation devoutly  to  be  wished.  For  instance,  Germany  was 
divided,  bribed,  and  overawed,  not  with  a  view  to  immediate 
conquest,  but  with  a  view  to  silencing  her  protest  against 
Russian  aggression ;  and  here  Russia  has  fully  gained  her 
point.  Only  one  thing  was  wanted — the  revival  of  the  old 
antagonism  between  England  and  France,  a  thing  which 
seemed  the  easiest  of  all,  but  turned  out,  contrary  to  all 
expectation,  the  most  difficult — that  Constantinople  should 
be  once  again  the  capital  of  the  Eastern  world." 

It  is  only  necessary  to  bear  in  mind  the  character  of  this 
ancient  quarrel  between  the  East  and  the  West,  between 
the  Papacy  determined  to  subjugate  the  Greek  Church,  and 
that  Greek  Church  equally  resolved  upon  self-defense  and 
independence,  to  comprehend  why  Russia  would  guard  with 
most  jealous  watchfulness  against  any  interference  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Powers  with  Turkey,  and  especially  when 
coming  from  France,  which  is  now  the  most  powerful,  as 
well  as  the  most  earnest  defender  of  the  Papacy  in  Europe ; 
France,  which  to  gratify  the  Pope  trampled  out  the  Italian 
Republic,  and  now  with  a  Jesuit  as  chief  adviser  of  the 


THE  KELIGIOUS  ASPECT  OF  THE  EASTERN  WAR.     127 

Emperor,  makes  war  on  Russia  in  the  name  of  civilization 
and  liberty.  The  "  Eastern  question,"  then  resolves  itself 
mainly  into  the  old  contest  between  races  and  churches, 
between  the  East  and  the  West,  between  Russia  as  repre- 
senting the  Eastern  Empire  and  Greek  Church,  and  the 
Latin  Powers  of  western  Europe,  represented  in  France,  to 
whom,  for  commercial  purposes,  England  has  for  the  time 
allied  herself.  The  immediate  struggle  previous  to  the  war, 
was  between  France  and  Russia,  on  the  field  of  diplomacy 
at  the  court  of  the  Sultan  :  France,  by  the  aid  of  the  Jesuits, 
was  endeavoring  to  extend  the  Papal  influence  over  Turkey, 
and  through  a  Protectorate  over  one  million  of  Roman 
Catholics  in  the  Ottoman  Empire,  to  obtain  a  pretext  for 
interfering  with  its  concerns  at  some  convenient  oppor- 
tunity. 

It  was  the  old  design,  never  abandoned  at  Rome,  of  add- 
ing ultimately  Constantinople  to  its  dominions.  To  carry 
out  this  design  France  originated  the  strife  concerning  the 
Holy  Places  at  Jerusalem,  and  undertook  to  repair  for  Ro- 
man Catholic  use  a  church  which  had  hitherto  been  claimed 
by  the  Greek  Church.  To  eflect  these  purposes  some  musty 
claims,  which  had  been  sleeping  a  hundred  years,  were 
hunted  up  and  revived — ^by  Louis  I:^apoleon — and  in  these 
questions,  started  by  France  for  such  purposes,  the  imme- 
diate  causes  of  the  war  may  be  found. 

By  the  custom  of  several  generations,  the  occupation  of 
the  Christian  churches  and  other  "  Holy  Places"  at  Jerusa- 
lem had  been  divided  between  the  Greek  and  Latin  Churches, 
but  Louis  ^N'apoleon,  by  the  aid  of  Catholic  priests  and 
Jesuits,  hunted  up  some  old  and  neglected  treaty  stipulations 
which  the  Ottoman  Government  had  once  made  in  favor 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  then  formally  demanded 
that  the  "  Holy  Places"  should  be  controlled  strictly  accord- 
ing to  the  letter  of  the  old  treaty,  which  had  been  -dragged 
for  the  purpose  out  of  its  tomb. 

To  this  Russia  objected,  and  as  Protector  of  the  Greek 
Church  demanded  that  the  existing  state  of  things,  so  long 
settled  by  custom,  should  still  continue.    Here  was  the 


128  THE   RELIGIOUS   ASPECT   OF   THE   EASTERN  WAR. 

origiDating  point  of  the  difficulty,  the  Papal  Church  search- 
ing out  forgotten  records  in  order  to  revive  its  old  quarrel 
with  the  Greek  Church,  and  manufacture  an  occasion  for 
interference  with  the  concerns  of  Turkey.  Eussia  only 
asked  that  the  course  of  several  generations  should  still  be 
pursued  without  disturbance.  This  very  important  point 
in  the  history  of  that  war  and  the  Eastern  question,  should 
not  be  forgotten.  France,  and  not  Russia,  was  the  aggres- 
sor, and  it  began  as  a  religious  quarrel,  precisely  as  Russia 
has  declared. 

It  was  a  collision  between  the  eastern  and  western  churches 
produced  by  a  demand  of  France,  the  very  nature  of  which 
shows  every  feature  of  Jesuit  intrigue,  and  that  it  was  de- 
signed as  an  entering  wedge  of  difficulty.  Let  it  be  re- 
membered, too,  that  France  had  succeeded  in  obtaining  a 
protectorate  over  one  million  of  Roman  Catholic  subjects 
of  the  Porte,  the  intention  of  which  was  of  course  well 
understood  by  Russia.  Austria  also,  another  Roman  Cath- 
olic Power,  had  obtained  from  the  Turkish  Government 
Stipulations  in  favor  of  Catholic  subjects,  while  the  rights 
of  Russia,  in  regard  to  twelve  millions  of  Greek  Christians, 
rested  on  verbal  promises  and  customs,  instead  of  treaty 
stipulations,  excepting,  perhaps,  the  treaty  of  Kainardji, 
the  meaning  of  which  was  in  dispute,  the  validity  of  which, 
as  interpreted  by  Russia,  had  been  acknowledged  by  an 
English  minister,  as  previously  stated. 

With  these  evidences  of  a  settled  design  on  the  part  of 
the  Catholic  Powers,  and  especially  France,  to  secure  exclu- 
sive advantages  for  themselves,  and  with  the  manifest  will- 
ingness on  the  part  of  the  Porte  to  yield  to  their  demands, 
what  was  the  course  of  Russia?  ITo  opprobious  epithet 
has  been  spared  in  denouncing  her  conduct  at  this  point, 
and  French  and  English  talent  has  been  lavishly  employed 
to  exhibit  her  as  worthy  only  of  the  scorn  and  hatred  of 
the  world.  What  then  are  the  facts  ?  In  regard  to  the 
the  Holy  Places,  Russia  simply  demanded  that  no  alteration 
should  be  made  in  the  existing  state  of  things,  which  had 
been  peaceably  acquiesced  in  for    "several  generations," 


THE  RELIGIOUS   ASPECT   OF   THE   EASTERN  WAR.  129 

according  to  English  authorities.  This  was  so  eminently 
reasonable,  that  France  did  not  choose  to  risk  her  reputa- 
tion by  refusing,  and  the  question  of  the  Holy  Places  was 
thus  settled  by  the  abandonment  of  the  claims  of  the 
Papacy. 

But  France  and  Austria  had  obtained  by  treaty  stipula- 
tion the  right  to  a  protectorate  over  the  one  million  of 
Catholics  in  the  Turkish  dominions,  while  the  right  of 
Russia  in  her  protection  of  twelve  millions  of  Greek  Chris- 
tians rested,  with  the  exception  of  the  disputed  treaty,  on 
a  traditional  privilege,  custom,  and  the  verbal  promise  of 
the  Porte,  not  upon  express  treaty,  as  did  those  of  France. 
With  this  Eussia  had  been  satisfied  until  the  designs  of  the 
Papal  Powers  had  been  disclosed  in  the  matter  of  the  Holy 
Places,  and  until  it  was  evident  that  the  Roman  Catholic- 
influence  was  likely  to  become  the  ruling  one  with  the- 
Sultan. 

Russia  then  asked  that  the  privileges  which  she  had 
enjoyed,  and  which  rested  on  custom,  and  promises,  ex- 
cepting only  the  disputed  treaty  of  Kainardji,  should  now 
be  secured  by  formal  contract,  as  those  of  France  had 
already  been,  thus  placing  her  rights  on  the  same  footing 
with  the  other  Powers.  She  asked  for  herself  no  peculiar 
or  exclusive  advantages ;  she  demanded  simply  that  the 
Greek  Christians  should  be  placed  on  the  same  condition 
as  other  Christian  Powers,  and  that  verbal  promises  and 
custom  should  be  ratified  by  assuming  the  form  of  a  treaty. 
It  has  nowhere  been  shown  that  Russia  demanded  any  new 
privileges,  anything  not  previously  enjoyed,  but  she  only 
desired  that  existing  rights  should  have  the  solemn  sanction 
of  a  treaty. 

This  point  can  not  be  too  strongly  insisted  upon,  because 
the  charge  was  continually  made  against  Russia,  that  after 
the  settlement  of  the  question  of  the  Holy  Places,  she 
advanced  entirely  new  pretentions,  alike  incompatible  with 
the  honor  of  the  Porte  and  the  safety  of  Europe.  This  has 
been  brought  forward  on  all  occasions,  to  show  that  Russia 
was  pre-determined  upon  a  rupture  with  Turkey,  or  upon 
9 


130  THE   RELIGIOUS   ASPECT   OF   THE   EASTERN  WAR. 

forcing  her  to  accept  sucla  terms  as  would  prove  her  ruin. 
Let  it  therefore  be  remembered  that  the  new  demand  of 
Russia  was  simply  to  be  secured  by  treaty  in  the  rights  which 
she  then  possessed. 

She  asked  nothing  which  had  not  been  previously  granted 
and  secured  so  far  as  customary  use  and  verbal  promise 
could  avail,  but  fearing  that  Jesuit  artifice  and  influence 
might  induce  the  Ottoman  Government  to  change  its  mind, 
Nicholas  chose  to  ask  the  security  of  a  written  document, 
such  as  the  other  Powers  had  already  obtained.  This  re- 
quest, which  history  must  yet  pronounce  a  most  reasonable 
one,  Turkey,  advised  by  France  and  England,  refused. 

France,  England,  Turkey,  all  were  willing,  perfectly  so, 
to  re-affirm  existing  treaties  as  Turkey  construed  them.  But 
all  parties  were  aware  that  existing  treaties  while  they  secured 
the  rights  desired  by  Roman  Catholics,  did  not  in  like  manner 
provide  for  those  of  the  Greek  Church.  You  have  our  word 
for  it,  was  the  reply  of  Turkey,  and  with  that  you  should 
be  satisfied.  We  agree  to  place  the  Greek  Christians  on 
the  same  footing  with  others.  Let  us  have  this  in  due  form 
of  treaty,  was  the  answer  of  Russia,  and  we  are  satisfied. 
But  Turkey  refused. 

We  have  the  authority  of  the  best  English  writers  for 
stating  that  the  promises  given  to  Russia  and  the  rights 
she  enjoyed,  did  not  differ  from  those  of  other  Powers. 
"  That  engagement  with  Russia  did  not  differ  in  principle 
''from  any  similar  promise  given  to  any  other  Power  J'  Such 
is  the  language  of  the  Edinburgh  Review,  in  speaking  of 
the  engagements  entered  into  between  the  Porte  and  the 
European  Powers,  including  Russia,  concerning  the  Chris- 
tians in  Turkey.  Russia  then  had  claimed  nothing  unusual, 
nothing  which  other  Powers  did  not  possess,  and  nothing 
which  had  not  been  verbally,  and  as  she  claimed,  by  treaty 
also,  conceded  to  her  already,  and  sanctioned  by  long  use. 
What  then  was  the  point  of  difiiculty  so  grave,  so  incap- 
able of  removal,  as  to  produce  this  terrible  war?  Once 
iinore  let  it  be  repeated. 

Turkey,  by  the  advice  of  the  Allies,  refused  to  give  Russia 


THE   RELIGIOUS   ASPECT   OF   THE   EASTERN   WAR.  131 

any  formal  written  legal  security  for  her  acknowledged 
rights,  when  this  had  already  been  done  in  regard  to  other 
Powers.  She  was  willing  to  be  bound  by  formal  treaty  in 
regard  to  the  one  million  of  Roman  Catholics,  when  de- 
manded by  France  and  Austria,  but  she  insisted  that  her 
unsupported  word  was  enough  for  Russia,  and  the  twelve 
millions  of  Greek  Christians,  and  in  this  position  she  was 
supported  by  England  and  France.  They  insisted  that 
Russia  should  not  have  a  legal  and  formal  right  to  privi- 
leges which  all  parties  acknowledged;  and,  of  course, 
whenever  France  could  persuade  or  overawe  the  Turkish 
Government,  they  could  be  denied  altogether. 

It  was  precisely  the  case  of  a  man  refusing  to  give  any 
written  obligation  for  a  debt  which  he  acknowledges  to  be 
just,  leaving  himself  the  privilege  of  repudiating  it  at  his 
pleasure.  N'o  one  could  blame  a  creditor,  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, for  endeavoring  to  secure  himself;  and  history 
will  justify  Russia,  first,  in  believing  that  Turkey  did  not 
intend  to  fulfill  engagements  to  which  she  refused  to  bind 
herself  in  due  form,  and  second,  for  attempting  to  secure 
her  acknowledged  rights — and  more  especially  when  every 
movement  showed  that  France  was  seeking  to  make  it  the 
occasion  either  of  quarrel  or  of  reviving  her  supremacy  in 
the  councils  of  Turkey. 

"  If,"  says  the  Edinburgh  Beview,  "  the  new  demands  of 
"Russia  were  of  a  nature  to  confer  upon  her  in  a  definite 
"  and  legal  form,  rights  of  protectorate  over  the  Christian 
"  subjects  of  the  Porte,  they  were  demands  which  called 
"  for  the  resistance  of  Europe."  The  world  will  be  inclined 
to  ask  why^  Precisely  such  rights  of  protectorate  had 
already  been  granted  to  France  in  ^^  definite  and  legal  form;'' 
why  then  should  they  be  refused  to  Russia,  particularly 
when  for  a  long  time  she  had  enjoyed  them  without  dis- 
pute, and  "  they  did  not  differ  in  principle"  from  what  had 
been  formally  secured  to  others  ? 

If  Russia  would  be  content  with  a  mere  "  re-affirmation 
of  existing  treaties"  France  and  England  would  agree  to 
such  a  note ;  but  all  well  knew  that  this  settled  nothing, 


132  THE   KELIGIOUS    ASPECT   OF   THE   EASTERN  WAR. 

because  the  very  sense  insisted  upon  by  E-ussia  in  the  treaty 
of  Kainardji  was  disputed  by  France,  and  finally  by  Eng- 
land also,  when  it  suited  her  convenience,  after  her  marriage 
with  France.  Russia  asked  only  a  stipulation  confirming 
her  construction  of  this  treaty,  but  France  and  England 
refused  to  admit  this  construction,  and  consequently  this 
proposal  to  re-affirm  existing  treaties  was  a  mere  specious 
device.  The  clause  in  the  treaty  of  Kainardji  is  in  these 
words  :  "  The  Sublime  Porte  promises  constantly  to  protect 
the  Christian  religion  and  its  churches." 

This  certainly  in  itself  is  sufficiently  indefinite.  But 
when  Turkey,  under  this  general  rule,  enters  into  certain 
specific  relations  with  France  and  Austria,  she  fixes  thereby 
her  interpretation  of  the  clause,  or  of  her  general  obliga- 
tions to  Christian  Powers,  and  Russia,  beyond  all  dispute, 
has  a  right  to  insist  upon  a  similar  interpretation  of  the 
rule  in  her  own  case.  This  was  her  only  demand,  and  this 
Turkey  and  the  Allies  refused. 

When  the  blinding  vail  which  diplomatic  art  has  thrown 
over  this  transaction  has  been  removed  by  time,  the  world 
will  perceive  that  Russia  was  wronged  by  Turkey  and  the 
Allies,  and  that  her  only  course  was  to  submit  to  manifest 
encroachment,  or  prepare  herself  for  resistance.  But  it 
may  be  asked,  what  motive  could  have  influenced  France 
and  England  to  persevere,  at  the  hazard  of  war,  in  resisting 
a  just  demand  of  Russia.  The  explanation  is  easy,  and  is 
given  in  few  words  by  the  Edinburgh  Review :  "  That  en- 
gagement with  Russia  did  not  difler  in  principle  from  any 
similar  promise  given  to  any  other  power.  Greater  danger 
attached  to  it  in  her  case,  from  the  alliance  between  the  forms 
of  Christianity  in  Russia  and  in  Turkey." 

This  furnishes  the  key  to  the  whole.  Because  there  were 
in  the  Providence  of  God  twelve  millions  of  Glreek  Chris- 
tians in  Turkey,  who  could  be  influenced  by  Russia,  and 
only  one  million  of  Roman  Catholics  that  could  be  used  by 
France,  therefore  if  Russia  should  possess  equal  rights  with 
other  Christian  Powers,  she  would  have  an  advantage  over 
them  all;    and  therefore^  while  Roman  Catholic  interests 


THE  RELIGIOUS  ASPECT  OF  THE  EASTERN  WAR.     133 

must  be  secured  by  solemn  treaty,  Eussia  must  rely  upon 
the  unsupported  word  of  the  Porte,  a  promise  which  could 
be  repudiated  at  pleasure. 

Such,  when  stripped  of  all  the  wrappage  of  diplomatic 
mystification,  appears  to  be  the  real  state  of  the  "  Eastern 
Question,"  in  which  the  war  originated,  a  war  for  which 
the  world  will  yet  hold  France  and  England  justly  respon- 
sible. Russia  saw  that  she  was  trifled  with,  and  with  reason 
felt  that  she  was  insulted,  and  she  decided  upon  her  course 
accordingly.  In  the  whole  history  of  earth,  it  will  be  diffi- 
cult to  discover  an  example  where  the  real  merits  of  a  case 
have  been  more  studiously  concealed,  and  western  Europe, 
and  perhaps  most  in  America,  have  been  led  to  believe 
that  France  and  England  were  forced,  much  against  their 
will,  to  enter  into  this  war  with  Russia.  In  one  sense  this 
is  true. 

They  were  forced  into  a  war  because  Il^icholas  would  not 
consent,  after  the  intrigue  of  France  in  regard  to  the  Holy 
Places,  to  suffer  his  acknowledged  rights  to  rest  any  longer 
upon  the  mere  word  of  the  Porte,  or  upon  the  language 
of  a  disputed  treaty,  where  the  similar  rights  of  other  Powers 
were  guaranteed  in  due  legal  form.  They  were  forced  into 
a  war,  rather  than  permit  an  act  of  simple  and  manifest 
justice  toward  Russia.  From  their  own  testimony  this 
verdict  will  assuredly  be  rendered  by  history  in  due  time 


134  THE  PAPAOr 


CHAPTER   XI. 


THE  PAPACY  IN  ITS  CONNECTION  WITH  THE  EASTEKN  QUESTION. 


"  "War  is  going  to  break  out  between  philosophy  and 
faith,  between  politics  and  religion,  between  Protestantism 
and  Catholicism  ;  and  the  banner  raised  by  France  in  this 
gigantic  struggle  will  decide  the  fate  of  the  world,  of  the 
Church,  and,  above  all,  of  France  herself."* 

This  feature  of  the  religious  aspect  of  the  Eastern  ques- 
tion is  one  which  demands  from  us,  as  Americans,  our  most 
serious  regard.  The  activity  and  zeal  of  the  French  Gov- 
ernment in  its  efforts  to  obtain  a  controlling  influence  at 
Constantinople  for  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  is  only  a 
part  of  a  vast  design  which  Eome  has  conceived  for  regain- 
ing her  lost  ascendancy  over  the  world.  She  is  making  one 
last  but  mighty  effort  to  place  herself  at  the  head  of  uni- 
versal dominion. 

She  believes  herself  able  even  yet  to  carry  out  the  design 
of  Hildebrand  and  the  Innocents,  and  subject  all  nations  to 
her  power  once  more.  Americans  should  not  forget  that 
this  claim  to  rule  the  world  in  the  name  of  God,  and  as  hia 
only  and  proper  representative  on  earth,  has  never  for  one 
moment  been  abandoned  by  the  Papal  Hierarchy,  nor  has 
their  been  an  hour  in  her  history,  since  the  days  of  Gregory 
the  Great,  when  she  has  not  both  designed  and  hoped  to 

*  Pe  OuBtine's  BassiaC 


IN  ITS   CONNECTION  WITH   THE   EASTERN   QUESTION.        135 

make  it  good.     On  this  point  no  American  should  either 
remain  indifferent,  or  suffer  himself  to  be  deceived. 

The  one  essential  and  unvarjing  claim  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  is,  that  she  is  of  right  and  by  the  appoint- 
ment of  God  himself,  not  only  the  one  true  Church  of  the 
earth,  but  the  supreme  power  of  the  world ;  that,  as  the 
vicegerent  of  Jesus  Christ  on  earth  she  is,  in  the  person  of 
the  Pope,  the  rightful  sovereign  of  all  other  sovereigns, 
king  of  kings,  and  lord  of  lords  ;  that  all  out  of  her  pale 
are  heathen  or  heretics ;  that  all  dissenting  governments 
ought,  as  heretical  Powers,  to  be  subdued  or  exterminated ; 
that  it  is  her  duty  to  do  this  whenever  and  wherever  she 
obtains  the  power ;  that  for  this  end,  all  means  whatever 
are  justifiable  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  her  stedfast  inten- 
tion is  to  overthrow  every  government  of  earth,  whether 
monarchial  or  republican,  that  refuses  to  submit  to  her 
power. 

The  Eoman  Catholic  Church  has  never  abated  one  iota 
of  this  demand  in  its  widest  extent,  and  she  never  will. 
She  can  not  surrender  the  very  loftiest  of  the  pretensions 
without  abandoning  all.  They  constitute  her  life.  Without 
these  demands,  she  would  become  simply  one  among  relig^ 
ious  denominations,  or  a  local,  national  church,  like  that 
of  England  or  Russia,  instead  of  what  she  now  claims  to 
be — the  one  only  church  of  God,  and,  as  such,  the  sovereign 
of  the  nations. 

Nor  is  it  wise  to  dismiss  with  an  idle  sneer  either  the 
pretensions  or  the  power  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
nor  blindly  rely  upon  the  boasted  intelligence  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  nor  trust  implicitly  in  the  present  forms 
and  spirit  of  Protestant  Christianity,  as  affording  a  sufficient 
safeguard  against  the  designs  of  the  Papacy,  without  watch- 
ful and  earnest  effort.  Few  are  now  ignorant  of  the  remark- 
able change  which  a  few  years  have  wrought  in  the  attitude 
and  spirit  of  the  Romish  Church.  But  a  short  time  has 
passed  since  the  Pope  fled,  a  fugitive,  from  his  capital,  and 
the  hopes  of  the  friends  of  freedom  and  of  Protestantism 
were  raised  to  the  highest  pitch. 


136  THE   PAPACY 

It  was  thouglit  that  the  Papal  power  was  broken  forever, 
and  the  day  of  the  world's  deliverance  had  come.  Yet  in 
how  brief  a  period  was  despotism  more  firmly  established 
in  Europe  than  before,  and  the  very  power  that  claimed  to 
be  the  foremost  apostle  of  liberty,  crushed  out  republicanism 
in  Italy,  and  reinstated  the  Pope  upon  his  throne. 

E'or  has  any  thinking  man  failed  to  observe  how,  from 
that  hour,  the  boldest,  the  most  impious  pretensions  ever 
made  by  the  Catholic  Church  have  been  revived,  and  doc- 
trines which  even  the  Middle  Ages  could  scarcely  bear  are 
openly  proclaimed  and  earnestly  defended  in  republican 
America.  A  more  vigorous  life,  a  more  hopeful  and  aggres- 
sive spirit,  is  everywhere  manifested  by  the  Papal  Power, 
and  the  persecuting  hierarchy  of  the  dark  ages  has  sud- 
denly re-appeared  upon  the  scene,  throwing  once  more  over 
the  nations  its  haughty  shadow,  breathing  defiance  and  com- 
manding submission. 

Her  priests  and  Jesuits  are  abroad  in  every  land,  a  mighty 
band  animated  by  one  spirit,  and  fired  with  one  common 
hope  of  victory,  and  revenge  for  the  long  dishonor  of  their 
Church ;  unscrupulous  in  the  use  of  means,  versed  in  every 
wile  of  diplomacy,  and  in  every  art  by  which  the  sources 
of  public  or  private  influence  are  reached,  citizens  nowhere, 
with  no  home  or  country,  and  bound  by  no  feeling  of 
allegiance,  except  to  the  Pope  and  their  Church  alone,  they 
are  making  an  earnest,  world-wide  efibrt  for  the  complete 
subjugation  of  the  nations.  The  attempt  which  for  years 
has  been  made  at  Jerusalem  and  Constantinople,  is  but  a 
part,  yet  a  very  important  one  in  the  general  design. 

The  revival  of  the  old  quarrel  with  the  Eastern  Church, 
is  one  step  only  in  a  premeditated  series  of  aggressions  in 
the  East  for  the  purpose  of  humbling  and  crippling  Russia, 
the  representative  of  the  Greek  Church  and  empire,  and, 
as  such,  hated  and  feared.  !Not  from  idle  curiosity,  but 
from  settled  design  originating  with  his  Jesuit  advisers, 
did  Louis  I^apoleon  search  through  the  forgotten  records 
of  two  hundred  years  to  find  an  occasion  against  the  Greek 
Church,  and  the  means  of  expelling  it  from  its  possessions 


IN  ITS   CONNECTION  WITH   THE   EASTERN   QUESTION.        137 

in  Jerusalem,  and  at  the  same  time  of  striking  a  blow  at 
Russia. 

It  must  be  understood  that  national  pride,  ambition,  and 
commercial  interests  had  also  a  powerful  influence  in  this 
movement,  but  behind  all  these,  and  using  these  as  the  in- 
struments of  their  working,  were  the  leaders  of  the  Eomish 
Church,  stirring  up  national  pride  and  ambition,  in  order 
through  them  to  advance  the  interests  of  the  Papacy.  A 
papal  influence  procured  from  the  Porte  concessions  in  favor 
of  Catholics,  which  at  the  same  time  it  was  induced  to  refuse 
to  Russia  and  twelve  millions  of  Creek  Christians,  leaving 
them  to  the  hare  word  of  the  Turkish  Covernment,  while 
Roman  Catholic  rights  were  solemnly  secured  by  treaty.  A 
Papal  influence  has  secured  an  alliance  between  France  and 
England  for  the  crushing  of  Russia,  the  only  formidable 
foe  of  the  Papacy  in  Europe,  and  England  has  been  led  so 
to  seek  the  gratification  of  her  ambition,  and  to  take  such 
measures  to  secure  her  commercial  supremacy,  as  will  if 
possible  check  and  limit  the  power  of  Russia,  the  defender 
of  a  rival  Church,  and  thus  the  whole  power  of  Protestant 
England  has  been  made  available  to  re-establish  the  suprem- 
acy of  the  Papacy  in  Europe. 

Disguise  all  this  as  we  will,  these  are  the  facts,  and  to 
these  conclusions  the  world  ere  long  must  come :  but,  pos- 
sibly too  late  to  avert  a  long  train  of  calamities  which  now 
are  threatening  Europe,  if  not  Protestantism,  throughout 
the  world.  Every  interest  of  Protestant  Christianity,  and 
every  interest  of  America,  whether  commercial  or  religious, 
would  have  been  advanced  by  the  defeat  of  the  Allies,  and 
the  breaking  up  of  the  Anglo-French  Alliance. 

Their  success  tended  to  the  triumph  of  the  Papacy  in 
Europe,  and  in  all  the  East.  In  England  the  newly  awak- 
ened vigor  of  Rome  has  been  manifested  in  equally  earnest 
efforts  to  win  back  even  this  Protestant  Power  to  her 
embrace  and  control.  These  attempts  and  the  powerful 
influence  which  they  have  produced  upon  the  English  nation 
are  too  well  known  to  be  dwelt  upon  here.  Whatever  may 
be  said  of  the  soundness  of  the  heart  of  the  English  nation, 


l38  THE  PAPACY 

all  of  which  it  is  hoped  will  prove  true,  the  astounding  fact 
is  before  the  world,  that  England  has  deliberately  chosen  a 
Papal  alliance  in  a  war  whose  origin  was  a  religious  one — 
that  in  a  struggle  between  the  Greek  and  Eatin  Churches, 
she  espoused  the  cause  of  Eome,  and  coolly  avowed  that 
the  war,  if  successful,  would  strengthen  the  Papal  power  in 
Europe,  and  that  she  preferred  this  to  the  progress  of 
Russia.  She  is  therefore  the  ally  of  the  Latin  Catholic  na- 
tions against  the  Eastern  Church  and  Empire.  American 
Protestants  may  well  inquire  with  some  anxiety,  what  will 
become  of  English  Protestantism? 

In  our  own  country,  this  new  struggle  for  Papal  suprem- 
acy is  no  less  earnest  than  at  Constantinople.  Armies  of 
foreign  priests  and  Jesuits  are  not  permitted  to  roam  at  will 
in  Russia,  fomenting  strife  and  intriguing  against  the  gov- 
ernment, and  therefore  fleets  and  armies,  shot  and  shell, 
are  employed  to  cripple  her ;  while  our  theory  of  liberty 
has  been  that  Americans  have  not  even  the  right  to  protect 
themselves  or  their  institutions,  lest  it  should  abridge  the 
liberties  of  those  who  are  endeavoring  to  subvert  them,  and 
therefore  the  emissaries  of  a  foreign  despotism,  and  mil- 
lions of  emigrants  wherewith  they  could  work,  have  been 
directed  to  our  shores — and  to  them  our  subjugation  has 
been  for  the  present  entrusted.  A  concerted  attack,  as 
carefully  planned  and  as  determined  as  that  upon  Russia, 
has  been  made  upon  the  very  life  of  American  institutions. 

The  very  basis  of  American  Protestant  Republicanism, 
our  schools  and  our  Bible — these  have  been  assailed  by  the 
combined  talent  of  the  Papal  leaders  here,  aided  by  the 
whole  influence  of  the  Pope,  and  by  a  liberal  supply  of 
funds  from  Europe.  The  Jesuits  in  America,  and  those  at 
Jerusalem  and  Constantinople,  are  working  in  concert,  with 
one  great  common  end  in  view — ^the  universal  re-establish- 
ment of  the  Papal  authority,  and  a  propagandism  that  shall 
rule  the  world.  The  efforts  of  the  Catholic  bishops,  priests 
and  Jesuits  here,  the  intrigues  in  the  Sultanas  court,  and 
the  batteries  at  Sebastopol,  have  but  one  general  signifi-  i 
eance,  though  distinct  commercial  interests  are  connected 


m  ITS   CONNECTION  WITH   THE   EASTERN   QUESTION.        139 

with  the  questions  in  the  East,  l^or  should  it  be  forgotten 
that  the  present  revived  and  threatening  aspect  of  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  Church  is,  according  to  the  view  of  many 
intelligent  students  of  prophecy,  clearly  foretold  in  the 
Word  of  God. 

They  find  it  stated,  as  they  think,  in  the  prophetic  record, 
that  previous  to  the  final  destruction  of  the  Papal  power, 
there  will  be  formed  a  new  combination  of  the  western  Latin 
nations  in  one  new  western  Empire  or  confederacy,  which 
shall  give  its  full  support  to  the  authority  of  the  Pope,  as  the 
Empire  under  Charlemagne  once  did,  and  that,  possessed  once 
more  of  the  needfnl  power,  Eome  will  again  seek  to  glut  her- 
self with  Protestant  blood.  The  tendency  toward  such  a  resuit 
in  Europe  is  certainly  sufficiently  clear  to  arrest  our  earnest 
attention.  Napoleon,  we  know,  dreamed  of  the  restoration 
of  a  Western  Empire,  and  was  crowned  with  the  iron  crown 
of  Charlemagne.  His  ambition  also  took  an  eastern  direc- 
tion, and  he  meditated  upon  an  eastern  dominion,  resting 
on  the  commerce  of  India. 

Louis  IsTapoleon  is  at  least  the  heir  of  his  uncle's  ambition. 
France  is  at  this  moment  the  head  and  leader  of  the  Latin 
(Catholic)  Powers,  and  under  her  they  are  combined  against 
the  Greek  Church  and  Eussia  in  the  East,  and  tending  to- 
ward a  confederacy  in  the  West,  which  shall  bear  up  the 
Papal  throne.  The  influence  of  Russia  over  Austria,  and 
her  Sclavonic  population,  unfits  her  for  a  Catholic  leader, 
and  renders  her  position  uncertain ;  while  France,  with  her 
bayonets  at  Rome,  her  Jesuits  at  Constantinople,  and  her 
arms  at  Sebastopol,  has  prepared  herself  to  be  the  head  of 
Catholic  Empire,  while,  at  the  same  time,  she  stands  in 
Africa  with  her  eye  upon  the  East. 

Still  another  important  aim  of  this  new  movement  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  is  to  retain  its  ascendency  over  the 
western  portions  of  the  Sclavonic  race.  The  Bohemians, 
the  Storraks,  the  Poles  and  Lithuanians  (all  Sclavonians), 
at  their  conversion  to  Christianity,  attached  themselves  to 
the  See  of  Rome  ;  while  the  Servians,  Bosnians,  Bulgarians, 
and  Russians,  (all  Sclavonians,  also,)  united  themselves  with 


140  THE  PAPACY. 

Constantinople  and  the  Greek  Churcli.  The  Eussians  and 
Poles  are,  therefore,  of  one  race  but  different  religions, 
and  the  hostility  of  the  Poles  to  Pussia  is  stimulated  by 
Catholic  influence,  and  were  this  withdrawn,  the  ties  of  race 
would  gradually  unite  again  these  now  separated  branches 
of  the  same  family.  Hence  the  desire  to  wrest  Poland  from 
Pussia,  and  prevent  this  union.  Let  it  be  remembered  that 
if  Poland  is  not  controlled  by  Pussia,  she  will  be  crushed 
by  the  worse  despotism  of  the  Papacy.  Poman  Catholic 
civilization  curses  whatever  it  touches. 

Such  being  the  state  of  Europe,  and  such  the  undeniable 
position,  hopes,  and  efforts  of  the  Pomish  Church,  it  cer- 
tainly requires  no  far-seeing  sagacity  to  understand  the 
interests  and  dangers  of  the  United  States  in  this  momen- 
tous struggle. 


^i*...^*^        A-^N^I-^N^'S   COURSE   TOWARDS  RUSSIA.  141 

OF 


CHAPTER    XII 


ENGLAND'S  COURSE  TOWATID  EUSSIA  IN  KEGAED  TO  THE  EASTERN  QUESTION 
AND  THE  CEIMEAN  WAE. 


The  course  of  England  towards  Eussia  in  regard  to  tlie 
Eastern  Question  and  in  the  invasion  of  the  Crimea,  was  so 
similar  to  her  treatment  of  us,  that  the  one  explains  the 
other,  and  at  the  risk  of  partial  repetition  in  some  points,  it 
/seems  proper  to  present  to  Americans  the  main  facts  of  that 
'iihapter  in  her  history,  in  order  that  they  may  compare 
England  then  with  England  now,  and  learn  that  in  her 
course  towards  us  she  is  governed  by  the  same  policy  which 
guided  her  then ;  that  this  is  her  national  policy,  to  be 
applied  to  ^Russia  or  America,  as  the  case  may  demand ; 
and/khether  she  strikes  eastward  at  monarchy  or  westward 
at  a  republic,  her  general  purpose  is  precisely  the.  sam^ 
Particularly  is  it  to  be  observed,  that  as  France  created  a 
cause  for  war,  and  forced  Russia  into  the  conflict  with  her, 
so  also  England,  on  her  part,  sought  an  occasion  for  quarrel 
with  Russia,  and,  notwithstanding  all  the  denunciations  of 
the  British  Press,  it  was  England  and  not  Russia  who 
began  the  war. 

England  sought  a  war  with  Russia,  and  nearly  the  whole 
power  of  her  Press  was  employed  to  cover  this  intention 
by  the  most  violent  accusations  against  ITicholas  and  his 
people,  knowing  all  the  while  that  the  Czar  desired  more 
than  all  things  else  peace  with  England,  in  the  same  manner 


142  England's  course  towards  Russia 

that  the  English  Government  stirred  up  the  people  to  fury  in 
the  case  of  the  Trent,  with  the  charge  that  we  desired  to  in- 
sult and  declare  war  upon  England,  when  at  the  same  time 
they  held  in  tlieir  hands  official  evidence  that  we  were  earn- 
estly desirous  of  peace  on  any  terms  which  would  save  our 
national  honor. 

That  England  was  the  aggressor  in  the  war  with  Russia 
will  be  readily  seen  from  the  following  facts  and  admissions 
by  the  English  Press. 

The  Emperor  Mcholas  was  England's  guest  in  1844,  and 
while  there  he  made  certain  propositions  to  the  British 
Cabinet  as  to  the  manner  in  which  the  Turkish  question 
should  be  settled  upon  the  fall  of  that  empire,  an  event  that 
he  declared  must  necessarily  be  near. 

In  regard  to  this  matter,  one  of  the  most  influential  of 
the  English  periodicals  used  the  following  language  soon 
after  the  death  of  the  Emperor  Mcholas : 

"  That  it  would  have  been  most  discreditable  to  England 
to  have  made  such  pact  is  generally  admitted — far  more 
to  her  indeed  than  to  Nicholas,  for  the  aggressive  policy 
southward  was  the  tradition  of  his  race,  and  he  spoke  in 
the  name  of  growing  and  expanding  Russia.  Bat  we 
hardly  saved  our  honor  in  the  transaction  as  it  was, /or  the 
ministry  listened  smilingly,  and  the  Times  wrote  leading  articles 
on  the  sickness  of  Turkey,  Let  this  pass.  We  only  meant 
to  say  that  he  (jN'icholas)  meant  no  harm  to  us,  for  we  can 
not  suppose  that  the  Czar  could  have  ruminated  on  the  dis- 
tant closing  up  of  Russia  on  England,  like  the  iron  prison 
in  its  last  fatal  change  on  the  victim  of  Italian  revenge. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  we  have  acted  wisely,  most  wisely, 
in  preferring  the  alliance  of  France  to  his,  for  France  and 
England  are  doing  each  other  good  every  day  of  their 
united  lives  ;  but  still  it  is  not  fair  that  we  should  bear  his 
memory  any  malice,  for  it  was  we  and  not  he  who  struck 
THE  first  blow.  He  has  done  nothing  to  deserve  at  our 
hands  unseemly  caricatures,  or  that  his  death  should  have 
been  applauded  in  an  English  theater." 


IN  REGARD   TO   THE   EASTERN   QUESTION.  143 

111  these  few  honest  sentences  there  is  much  food  for 
thought,  and  many  reasons  are  found  why  Americans,  at 
least,  should  hesitate  to  give  credence  to  the  specious  dec- 
larations that  England  was  forced  into  that  war,  in  defense 
of  civilization  and  humanity,  statements  which  have  been 
made  merely  to  render  the  war  popular,  and  to  excite  the 
people  against  Russia,  a  work  which  has  been  so  thoroughly 
done  that  the  English  people  disgraced  themselves  by  savage 
cheering  at  the  Emperor's  death.  England  having  pos- 
sessed herself,  by  her  maritime  superiority,  and  by  her  con- 
quest of  India,  of  the  commerce  of  the  East,  adopted  the 
double  public  policy  of  securing  to  herself  the  advantages 
she  had  won,  and  of  excluding  if  possible  other  nations 
from  a  participation  in  this  lucrative  trade. 

It  has  been,  therefore,  one  of  her  chief  anxieties  to  estab- 
lish, if  possible,  and  hold  for  her  own  benefit,  a  monopoly 
of  the  East,  and  for  this  purpose  her  jealous  care  has  been 
to  prevent  the  re-opening  of  any  of  the  old  highways  of 
that  trade  whereby  it  could  be  diverted  from  her  own 
marts,  or  to  gain  possession  of  them  herself.  While  the 
ocean  route  could  remain  the  only  or  the  main  channel  be- 
tween India  and  Europe,  by  her  ships  and  her  possessions 
in  Hindostan  the  monopoly  of  the  trade  would  be  hers,  and 
she  would  rest  content.  But  when  the  question  of  estab- 
lishing other  communications  arose,  England  was  almost 
omnipresent  to  secure  herself  against  a  rival.  Hence  her 
intrigues  in  Central  America,  and  her  establishment  on  the 
Mosquito  shore,  and  her  projects  on  the  Isthmus  of  Panama, 
for  ship  canals,  in  order  that  she  might  gain  possession  of 
the  American  key  to  the  Indies ;  hence,  also,  her  fleet  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Nile  when  Bonaparte  was  in  Egypt  threat- 
ening to  re-open  and  hold  for  France  the  old  Hed  Sea  route 
to  the  East ;  which  scheme,  had  it  been  successful,  might 
have  restored  to  the  cities  of  the  Mediterranean  their  an^- 
cient  wealth  and  power ;  and  hence,  too,  be  it  remembered, 
her  anxieties  for  the  fate  of  Constantinople. 

Not  sympathy  for  the  Turk  has  ever  moved  the  heart  of 
England,  but  every  movement  in  connection  with  Turkey 


144  England's  course  towards  Russia 

has  been  made  with  anxious  reference  to  her  Eastern  trade. 
It  is  because  she  has  not  been  contented  to  share  this  com- 
merce with  the  rest  of  the  world.  She  has  coveted  a 
monopoly  of  its  profits,  and  has  been  ready  with  her  fleets 
and  her  armies  to  prevent  any  other  Power  of  earth  from 
building  for  itself  a  highway  to  India.  She  has  endeavored 
to  frustrate  the  United  States  in  Central  America ;  she  suc- 
ceeded in  forcing  the  French  army  from  Egypt — and  she 
has  also  determined  not  only  to  prevent  Eussia  from  estab- 
lishing herself  at  Constantinople,  but  to  wrest  from  her 
the  control  of  the  Black  Sea,  and  prevent  her  from  occu- 
pying the  old  northern  road  to  the  East. 

Let  it  not  be  forgotten  here  that  it  is  not  the  conquest  of 
British  India  at  which  Eussia  is  aiming,  or  which  she  has 
ever  proposed,  but  to  open  for  herself  a  commerce  with 
northern  Asia  by  a  route  of  her  own ;  that  she  proposes 
not  war  on  England,  but  an  honorable  competition  for  the 
trade  of  Asia;  and  this  England  opposed  with  a  war  whose 
object  was  to  destroy  forever  all  hope  of  maritirfie  or  com- 
mercial prosperity  for  Eussia,  which  done,  she  would  hold 
a  complete  monopoly  of  the  richest  commerce  of  the  world, 
while  at  the  same  time  the  manufactures  of  Eussia  would  be 
ruined,  and  she  would  again  become  dependent  on  Great 
Britain. 

It  is  now  easy  to  perceive  the  real  policy  of  England  in 
regard  to  the  proposition  made  to  the  British  Government 
while  Mcholas  was  in  London.  He  frankly  informed  Eng- 
land that  the  time  was  near  when  the  Turkish  Government 
must  inevitably  fall,  without  any  external  force,  that  it  had 
no  vitality,  was  in  fact  already  seized  by  death,  and  that 
he  desired  some  friendly  understanding  with  Englandas  to 
the  course  to  be  pursued  when  that  event  should  come,  that 
all  of  Europe  might  not  then  be  embroiled,  because  other 
nations  would  be  constrained  to  abide  by  the  joint  decision 
<H  England  and  Eussia.  It  is  understood  that  he  proposed 
that  England  should  occupy  Egypt,  while  the  control  of 
Constantinople  should  be  given  to  Eussia. 

Simply  as  a  bargain  between  Russia  and  England,  this 


IN  REGARD   TO   THE   EASTERN   QUESTION.  145 

surely  was  not  an  ungenerous  offer  for  Eussia.  The  Czar 
offered  to  surrender  to  Great  Britain  the  hest  of  all  the 
inland  routes  to  India,  the  one  which  gave  wealth  and 
magnificence  to  Egypt,  and  Jerusalem,  and  Tyre,  the  one 
re-opened  by  the  genius  of  Alexander,  the  one  which  she 
has  long  coveted,  and  to  secure  which  she  fought  the  battle 
of  the  Mle.  It  was  a  proposition  which,  to  all  appearance, 
would  have  made  her  supreme  in  the  West,  holding,  as  she 
does,  Gibraltar,  the  Mediterranean  key.  N^or  was  it  need- 
ful for  her  to  be  anxious  in  regard  to  the  hostility  of  France, 
it  would  seem,  with  Russia  for  her  ally.  The  holy  indig- 
nation which  England  has  so  abundantly  manifested  at 
this  proposition  since  war  was  determined  on,  was  by  na 
means  aroused  when  it  was  first  advanced  ;  on  the  contrary, 

"  THE    MINISTRY    RECEIVED   IT    SMILINGLY,"    then,    and    "  THE 

*  Times'  wrote  leading  articles  upon  the  sickness  of  Tur- 
key." The  offer  was  taken  into  friendly  consideration,  and 
sympathy  for  Turkey  was  a  rare  virtue  in  England. 

It  is  perfectly  clear  that  the  Czar  had  never  received  the 
slightest  official  intimation  that  his  proposal  had  been  un- 
favorably received,  and  that  his  confidential  communications 
with  Sir  Hamilton  Seymour  were  but  the  carrying  out,  on 
his  part,  of  the  design  which  he  had  been  led  to  suppose 
was  favorably  received,  and  even  virtually  decided  upon  by 
the  English  Government.  The  Eussian  Emperor  was  frank 
and  honorable  in  his  dealings  with  England,  and  she,  on 
the  other  hand,  receiving  his  advances  with  marked  favor, 
took  them  into  long  consideration,  pondering  in  the  mean 
time  whether  even  a  better  bargain  might  not  be  effected 
in  some  other  quarter,  and  so  soon  as  she  had  decided  upon 
a  French  alliance,  endeaVore^  to  excite  the  world  against 
Eussia  for  proposing  that  ''mrocious"  partition  of  Turkey, 
which  the  hightoned  honor  of  England  had  so  decidedly 
rejected,  though  when  presented,  ministers  had  looked  all 
smiles,  and  the  Times  had  written  leading  articles  to  prove 
that  Turkey  was  as  good  as  dead,  and  it  was  time  to  deter- 
mine England's  share  in  the  property.  England  at  first 
was  strongly  inclined  to  favor  and  accept  the  proposition 
10 


146  England's  course  towards  Russia 

of  ITicholas,  and  did  not  perceive  its  wickedness  until  the 
newly  projected  alliance  with  France. 

Then  the  cry  was  opened  upon  "  barbarous  Russia,^'  which 
was  making  war  upon  civilization,  which  had  piratically 
proposed  to  divide  Turkey,  and  whose  advance  must  now 
be  checked  for  the  salvation  of  Europe.  But  this  allusion 
to  the  smiles  of  ministers  and  leading  articles  in  the  Times 
is  by  no  means  the  only  evidence  which  shows  that  the 
English  Government  was  merely  playing  a  part  in  its 
affected  horror  at  the  proposition  of  Nicholas,  and  that  so 
late  as  1854,  the  Czar  had  every  public  assurance  that  his 
policy  was  approved,  and  would  be  defended  by  England. 
A  few  facts  will  render  this  point  sufficiently  clear,  while 
they  place  the  British  Grovernment  in  a  most  unenviable 
position,  when  compared  with  the  straight-forward  frank- 
ness of  !N"icholas. 

Since  1844,  England  had  been  in  possession  of  the  pro- 
posal of  the  Russian  Emperor,  without  a  word  of  disap- 
proval, tacitly  consenting.  In  1853,  when  the  affairs  of  the 
East  began  to  wear  a  threatening  aspect,  and  when  Eussia 
was  assuming  a  position  which  showed  that  she  intended 
to  resist  the  intrigues  of  France,  Lord  John  Russell,  on  be- 
half of  the  Government,  wrote  as  follows  to  the  Czar : 

"  Her  Majesty's  Government  are  persuaded  that  no  course 
of  policy  can  be  adopted  more  wise,  more  disinterested,  and 
more  beneficial  to  Europe,  than  that  which  his  Imperial 
Majesty  has  so  long  followed,  and  which  will  render  his 
name  more  illustrious  than  that  of  the  most  famous  sover- 
eigns who  have  sought  immortality  by  unprovoked  conquest 
and  ephemeral  glory." 

In  another  part  of  this  dispatch  are  the  following  remark- 
able words :  "  The  more  the  Turkish  Government  adopts 
"  the  rules  of  impartial  law  and  equal  administration,  the 
"  less  will  the  Emperor  of  Hussia  find  it  necessary  to  apply 
"that  exceptional  'protection  which  his  Imperial  Majesty  has 


IN  REGARD  TO  THE  EASTERN  QUESTION.       147 


"  found  SO  burdensome  and  inconvenient,  though  no  doubt 

**  PRESCRIBED  BY  DUTY  AND  SANCTIONED  BY  TREATY." 

The  admission  of  Lord  John  Eussell  in  regard  to  the 
correctness  of  the  Russian  interpretation  of  the  treaty  of 
Kainardji,  d^es  not  stand  unsupported  even  by  English 
testimony.  In  a  history  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  forming 
one  of  the  series  of  the  Encyclojpedice  Metropolitana,  pub- 
lished in  1854,  is  the  following  account  of  that  treaty. 
"  The  most  fatal  condition  to  the  Turkish  dominion,  and  at 
"  the  same  time  the  most  honorable  to  Eussia,  was  the  re- 
"  cofirnition  of  the  latter  Power  as  Protectress  of  the  Mol- 
"  davians,  the  Wallachians,  and  of  the  Christians  generally 
"in  the  Sultans  dominions. 

At  the  time  this  sentence  was  penned,  it  is  evident  that 
the  learned  authors  of  that  history  believed  that  the  claims 
of  Eussia  were  properly  based  upon  treaty  stipulations, 
although  in  a  closing  chapter,  written  after  the  declaration 
of  roar,  Eussia  is  denounced  for  adhering  to  such  an  inter- 
pretation of  this  treaty,  though  it  was  previously  admitted 
to  be  just,  even  by  themselves. 

Here  is  the  important  concession  made  by  a  British  min- 
ister in  1853,  and  by  British  historians,  that  Eussia  was  not 
only  right  in  her  demands  upon  Turkey,  but  that  this  right 
was  already  secured  by  treaty,  precisely  as  Eussia  declared, 
and  as  Turkey,  instigated  by  France,  directed — England 
then  testified  that  the  demands  of  Eussia  were  just  ones, 
and  consequently  she  was  not  the  aggressor  in  this  war. 
She  was  unjustly  attacked,  through  the  influence  of  Papal 
France,  and  it  is  a  war  in  defense  of  the  rights,  the  terri- 
tory, the  faith,  and  homes  of  Eussia.  I^icholas,  in  his 
conferences  with  Sir  George  Seymour,  in  1853,  said,  "  We* 
"  must  come  to  some  understanding,  and  this  we  should  do, 
"I  am  convinced,  if  I  could  hold  but  ten  minutes'  con- 
"  versation  with  your  ministers. 

"  And  remember  I  do  not  ask  for  a  treaty  or  a  protocol, 
a  general  understanding  is  all  I  require — that,  between 
gentlemen,  is  sufficient."  The  English  Grovernment  replied 
through  Lord  Clarendon  as  follows,  in  March :  "  The  gen- 


148  England's  course  towards  Russia 

"erous  confidence  exhibited  by  tbe  Emperor  entitles  bia 
"Imperial  Majesty  to  tbe  most  cordial  declaration  of  opinion 
"on  the  part  of  her  Majesty's  Grovernment;  who  are  fully 
"  aware  that  in  the  event  of  any  understanding  with  reference 
"  to  future  contingencies  being  expedient,  or  indeed  pos- 
V  «  sible,  the  word  of  his  Imperial  Majesty  would  be  preferable 
**to  any  convention  that  could  be  framed."  After  the 
British  fleet  had  been  ordered  to  the  Eosphorus,  Lord 
Clarendon  informed  the  Russian  minister  that  the  "  British 
"  fleet  had  no  hostile  designs  against  Russia." 

After  the  battle  of  Sinope,  the  British  Grovernment  in- 
formed Russia,  that  ''measures  will  be  taken  for  preventing 
"  Turkish  ships  of  war  from  making  descents  upon  the  coast  of 
"  BussiaJ'  In  the  opening  debate  of  1854,  Lord  Aberdeen 
declared  "  that  he  saw  nothing  to  find  fault  with  the  memo- 
"  randum  (containing  the  proposal  of  Mcholas),  and  that  he 
"  looked  upon  it  with  great  satisfaction.''  Count  I^esselrode, 
in  a  letter  to  the  Russian  minister,  speaks  of  "  the  late  con- 
"fidential  overtures  which  Sir  H.  Seymour  has  been  instructed 
'Ho  make  to  us,''  but  in  the  publication  of  the  dispatches 
by  the  British  Government  all  this  was  sedulously  concealed. 
The  whole  had  been  expunged. 
/'''  In  the  light  of  such  disclosures,  how  will  England  con- 
I  vince  the  world  that  she  has  not  been  guilty  of  treachery 
to  Russia,  while  Mcholas  was  honorable  keeping  faith  with 
her?  And  what  shall  be  thought  of  her  candor  or  her 
generosity  when  at  the  eleventh  hour,  while  Russia  was 
relying  upon  her  declarations  and  her  honor,  having  dis- 
covered, as  she  thought,  that  she  might  drive  a  still  better 
bargain  by  an  alliance  with  France,  she  deserted  the  Czar, 
called  upon  the  world  to  admire  the  lofty  honor  that  had 
rejected  the  proposals  of  Russia,  and  declared  she  was  has- 
tening to  the  defense  of  Turkey,  and  to  protect  civilization 
against  the  barbarism  of  the  !N"orth. 

The  value  of  such  pretenses  can  now  be  estimated  at 
their  proper  worth,  especially  when  we  add  to  what  has 
been  stated  already,  the  significant  declaration  of  Lord 
Palmerston,  that  England  had  designs  in  this  war  ulterior 


IN  REGARD   TO   THE   EASTERN   QUESTION.  149 

to  the  preservation  of  Turkey.  What  potent  argument  in  the 
way  either  of  menace  or  of  larger  spoil  was  offered  at  this 
juncture  by  the  French  Government,  that  induced  the 
change  in  English  policy,  lies  hidden  among  the  secrets  of 
diplomacy ;  but  that  there  was  a  sudden  change,  and  that 
Russia  was  deserted  and  deceived,  is  too  plain  to  admit  of 
doubt. 

But  it  may  be  asked,  what  explanation  can  be  given  of 
the  course  of  England,  except  upon  the  supposition  that 
she  was  sincerely  indignant  at  the  proposal  of  Russia,  and 
that  from  truly  lofty  motives  she  had  undertaken  this  war 
to  defend  weak  and  tottering  Turkey  against  her  powerful 
foe?  First,  it  is  quite  clear  that  she  was  not  indignant 
when  the  suggestion  was  made,  nor  until  she  had  deter- 
mined that  an  alliance  with  France  would  be  more  valuable 
than  the  friendship  of  Russia ;  and  second,  her  policy  is 
more  fully  explained  by  another  suggestion.  England  pro- 
poses to  herself  to  become  the  manufacturer  for  the  world, 
and  the  chief  factor  of  its  commerce.  The  bearing  which 
any  settlement  of  the  "  Eastern  question"  may  have  upon 
this  main  purpose,  is  the  important  one  in  the  opinion  of 
English  statesmen. 

At  first  view  the  possession  of  Egypt,  and  the  route  to 
India  by  the  Isthmus  of  Suez,  would  appear  all  that  Eng- 
land could  desire,  controlling,  as  in  that  case  she  would, 
two  main  channels  to  the  East.  But  then  a  second  thought 
will  show  that  with  Russia  holding  the  Black  Sea  and 
Constantinople,  together  with  the  mouths  of  the  Danube, 
she  might,  with  the  eastern  highway  by  the  Caspian  and 
the  Aral,  soon  become  a  formidable  rival  both  in  the  eastern 
and  European  markets ;  and  there  would  be  great  danger 
that  Constantinople  would  absorb  much  of  the  trade  coming 
through  the  Red  Sea.  If,  therefore,  the  power  of  Russia 
could  be  broken  in  the  Euxine,  if  her  influence  at  Con- 
stantinople could  be  destroyed,  and  Turkey,  as  a  nominally 
independent  Power,  made  by  the  free-trade  system  a  mere 
dependency,  a  province  of  England,  it  would  be  far  more 


150  England's  course  towards  Russia 

advantageous  than  if  she  should  gain  Egypt,  with  Eussia 
at  Constantinople. 

The  interests  of  Turkey  have  been  no  more  regarded  in 
this  whole  transaction  by  England  than  by  Russia.  Both 
Powers  have  thought  only  of  their  own  advancement.  An- 
other consideration  seems  to  have  influenced  the  English 
cabinet.  France  was  evidently  preparing  herself  for  some 
new  exhibition  upon  the  theater  of  nations.  She  was  pro- 
viding herself  with  a  truly  formidable  navy,  and  her  mili- 
tary arrangements  were  upon  a  scale  that  were  significant 
of  anything  rather  than  unbroken  peace.  England  was 
made  to  feel  her  inferiority  to  her  old  foe,  in  military 
strength ;  her  ablest  commanders  pointed  out  the  insecurity 
of  her  position,  should  the  French  Emperor  find  it  neces- 
sary to  visit  her  shores  in  order  to  give  employment  to  his 
army ;  and  the  probability  of  a  French  invasion  was  gravely 
discussed. 

When,  therefore,  a  French  alliance  became  possible,  it 
was  evident  that  two  important  objects  might  be  accom- 
plished: that  the  fleet  and  army  of  Louis  E^apoleon  might 
be  drawn  ofif  from  the  English  shores  and  their  strength 
exhausted,  or  at  least  employed  elsewhere,  and  that  in  addi- 
tion to  this  securing  herself  at  home,  a  rival  might  be 
crippled  or  crushed  abroad.  Although  the  secrets  of  cabi- 
net councils  are  not  disclosed,  yet  the  actions  of  the  British 
Government  indicate  that  such  were  the  ruling  motives 
which  led  to  the  rejection  of  the  proposal  of  Mcholas  after 
it  had  been  under  consultation  since  1844,  and  the  accept- 
ance of  the  alliance  with  France.  A  secondary  reason  for 
this  choice  may  probably  be  found  in  the  fact  that  France 
had  already  at  great  cost  established  herself  in  Africa,  and 
might  be  disposed  at  some  time,  if  not  immediately,  to  dis- 
pute with  her  the  possession  of  Egypt,  while  Russia  at 
Constantinople  would  be  comparatively  secure  within  the 
closed  gates  of  the  Dardanelles. 

The  fear  of  the  English  Government,  that  France  may 
hereafter  seize  Egypt  and  Syria,  was  clearly  revealed  in  the 
debate  in  Parliament  upon  the  Turkish  loan. 


IN  KEGAED   TO   THE   EASTERN  QUESTION.  151 

The  proposition  which  the  Czar  made  to  the  English 
cabinet  is  a  full  disclosure  of  the  main  features  of  his  policy. 
He  was  willing  to  surrender  all  claim  to  Egypt  in  behalf 
of  England,  and  this  of  itself  is  conclusive  upon  one  point, 
that  he  had  no  sinister  designs  upon  western  Europe,  and 
that  he  desired  simply  a  position  from  whence  he  could 
safely  prosecute  his  favorite  Eastern  policy,  and  establish 
himself  on  the  road  to  northern  Asia.  The  right  of  Russia 
to  execute  her  design  is,  to  say  the  least,  quite  as  clear  as 
that  of  England  to  her  acquisitions  in  India,  or  that  of 
France  to  those  provinces  of  Africa  which  she  has  violently 
wrested  away.  But  Russia  has  not  declared  war  upon  Great 
Britain  because  she  has  spoiled  the  East  Indian  penin- 
sula, nor  upon  France  because  of  her  conquest  of  Algiers ; 
yet  these,  but  lately  mortal  foes,  allied  themselves  for  an 
assault  on  Russia  because  she  is  pursuing  a  scheme  of 
national  aggrandizement,  which,  in  its  moral  character,  is 
certainly  no  worse  than  their  own.  I^o  candid  man  will 
deny  that  the  Russian  Emperor  was  right  when  he  spoke 
of  the  dissolution  of  the  Turkish  empire  as  an  event  not 
only  certain,  but  near,  l^or  could  any  one  doubt  that  when 
this  should  occur  it  would  surely  convulse  all  Europe,  unless 
the  whole  question  could  be  settled  by  some  definite  pre- 
vious arrangement.  It  is  difficult,  therefore,  to  discover 
anything  very  atrocious  in  the  frank  and  open  manner  in 
which  Nicholas  brought  the  subject  to  the  attention  of  the 
British  ministers ;  and  in  his  subsequent  conversations  with 
Sir  H.  Seymour,  England  was  certainly  treated  in  an  honor- 
able manner,  whatever  may  be  said  of  the  intention  of 
either  government  in  regard  to  Turkey. 

But  let  it  once  be  conceded  that  an  unavoidable  neces- 
sity of  making  some  disposition  of  Turkish  affairs  was  near 
at  hand,  and  it  will  be  difficult  to  show  that  the  course  of 
Il'^icholas  was  more  open  to  censure  than  that  of  the  other 
Powers  who  have  made  themselves  parties  to  this  conflict. 
If  it  be  granted  that  a  radical  change  was  imminent  in  the 
Ottoman  Empire,  then  it  should  be  remembered  that  only 
about  one-fourth  of  the  inhabitants  of  that   empire  are 


152  England's  course  towards  Russia 

Turks,  and  that  no  less  than  twelve  millions  of  them  are 
members  of  the  Greek  Church,  and  therefore  bound  by  re- 
ligious affinities  to  E-ussia,  and  inclined  toward  her  also  by 
a  common  Oriental  origin,  while  between  these  same  Greek 
Christians  and  the  Homan  Catholic  nations  of  the  west, 
there  is  cherished  an  irreconcilable  and  mutual  dislike. 

To  extend  the  dominion  of  Russia  over  the  Turkish  Em- 
pire, would  be  to  incorporate  twelve  millions  who  are 
already  in  at  least  a  partial  sympathy  with  her,  while  with 
either  French  or  English  rule  would  be  introduced  a  differ- 
ent race  and  a  different  religion — and  with  France  a  religion 
intensely  hostile.  These  circumstances  should  all  be  taken 
into  consideration  in  explanation  of  the  demands  and  pur- 
poses of  Russia.  They  will  show  that  her  pretensions  in 
this  Eastern  question  have  at  least  as  reasonable  a  founda- 
tion as  those  of  her  western  rivals.  The  idea  of  a  regener- 
ation of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  with  the  Turkish  element 
predominant,  is,  in  the  opinion  of  the  best  informed  in 
Europe,  a  mere  dream,  contrary  to  every  analogy  in  the 
history  of  the  world,  and  in  the  nature  of  things  impossible. 

This  will  be  dwelt  upon  more  in  detail  hereafter.  But, 
assuming  here  as  true  what  will  be  proved  in  another  chap- 
ter, that  the  dominion  of  the  Turk  is  already  virtually  over, 
then  the  twelve  millions  of  Greek  Christians  will  at  once 
be  the  predominant  element  in  the  population,  and  their 
natural  affinities  lead  them  to  Russia,  as  the  head  and 
defender  of  the  Greek  Church.  This  certainly  is  the  case 
with  all  but  the  higher  clergy,  who,  from  personal  ambition, 
would  dislike  the  control  of  Russia. 

It  may  be  safely  asserted  that  an  independent  state  on 
the  present  territory  of  Turkey,  composed  of  Greek  Chris- 
tians, could  not  be  maintained  by  all  the  power  of  western 
Europe.  France,  as  a  Catholic  Power,  could  maintain  no 
influence  there  except  by  force  of  arms — the  influence  of 
the  conqueror  over  the  conquered — and  England,  as  the 
ally  of  a  Papal  Power,  made  herself  obnoxious  to  the  whole 
Greek  Church,  which  regards  this  war  as,  in  fact,  a  relig- 
ious quarrel.    The  attempt  to  erect  within  the  limits  of 


IN  EEGARD  TO  THE  EASTERN  QUESTION.  153 

Turkey  an  independent  Christian  state,  considering  the  ele- 
ments that  must  compose  it,  would  necessarily  end  either 
in  its  speedy- incorporation  with  Russia  or  in  a  continual 
war,  for  the  very  same  reasons  which  have  originated  the 
former  struggle. 

The  single  fact  that  fifty  millions  in  the  Eussian  Empire 
belong  to  the  Greek  rite,  and  that  twelve  millions  in  Tur- 
key are  of  the  same  faith,  is  sufficient  to  show  how  the 
Eastern  question  will  be  finally  settled.  And  to  prove  that 
the  demands  of  Russia  are  by  no  means  so  preposterous 
and  unjust  as  France  and  England  would  have  the  world 
believe,  let  it  be  supposed  that  twelve  millions  of  evangeli- 
cal Protestants,  allied  to  the  Americans  by  race  and  relig- 
ious faith,  were,  for  the  present,  held  in  subjection  by  ^ve 
millions  of  Mexicans,  and  that  this  Mexican  rule  was  weak 
and  tottering — about  to  fall — would  France  or  England  be 
allowed  to  prevent  these  twelve  millions  from  being  incor- 
porated with  the  United  States  ?  "Would  this  Government 
permit  these  to  be  made  an  independent  state  even  under 
French  or  English  dictation,  that  it  might  be  interposed 
between  us  and  the  West  India  islands  and  South  America, 
hold  us  within  such  limits  as  they  should  prescribe,  and  so 
preserve  here  the  balance  of  power  1 

It  is  quite  evident  that  there  could  be  but  one  settlement 
of  such  a  question.  The  very  existence  of  this  Union  w^ould 
depend  upon  the  continent  being  freed  from  any  such  for- 
eign control.  Every  American  would  declare  that  the  free 
development  of  the  country  should  go  on  without  let  or 
hindrance  from  any  others,  whose  only  interest  in  the  mat- 
ter would  be  that  of  checking  our  too  rapid  advance,  and 
keeping  us  to  their  own  level  of  power. 

This,  in  principle,  is  the  very  movement  which  we  are 
called  upon  to  meet  in  the  French  occupation  of  Mexico. 
The  Emperor  declares  without  reserve  that  he  has  seized  it 
to  interrupt  and  prevent  the  future  growth  of  the  Republic, 
and  that  this  interference  is  in  behalf  of  the  Latin  race, 
and  we  cannot  safely  forget  that  England  declared  herself 
to  be  in  perfect  accord  with  France  in  regard  to  American 


154  England's  course  towards  Russia. 

affairs,  and  that  the  French  and  English  fleets  were  united 
in  the  expedition  to  Mexico.  Louis  Napoleon  has  explained 
his  policy  in  words.  Had  English  statesmen  done  the  same 
the  record  in  substance  would  have  been  this  :  "  Our  trans- 
"  atlantic  cousins  are  becoming  too  powerful,  they  must  be 
"  taken  down.  They  are  pressing  hard  on  Mexico,  having 
"  already  absorbed  some  of  her  finest  provinces  ;  and  they 
"  will  soon  wrest  Cuba  from  Spain,  and  so  obtain  control  of 
"  the  West  Indian  seas  ;  and  they  are  moreover  construct- 
"  ing  a  railway  to  the  Pacific  that  may  endanger  our  East- 
"  ern  trade,  while  at  the  same  time  they  are  building  up  a 
"  manufacturing  system  which  will  render  them  independent 
"  of  our  workshops,  and  enable  them  to  meet  us  in  the 
"  markets  of  the  world,  and  we  must  therefore  sever  this 
"  Union  or  enable  the  rebels  to  do  it ;  we  must  help  the 
"  Confederates  to  annihilate  their  commerce,  force  their 
"  carrying  trade  into  our  own  ships,  and  effectually  cripple 
"  their  power."  Thus  the  "  Eastern  Question"  shows  that 
it  has  a  Western  phase  also,  and  the  Alliance,  as  Lord  Pal- 
merston  declared,  had  designs  "  ulterior  to  the  preservation 
"  of  Turkey." 


TURKEY  A  COLONIAL  DEPENDKHCT.  155 


CHAPTER    XIII. 


HAD  THE  ALLIES  FULLY  SUCCEEDED  IN  THE  ATTACK  ON  EUSSIA  THEY 
WOULD  HAVE  HELD  TURKEY  AS  A  COLONIAL  DEPENDENCY,  AS  ENGLAND 
HOLDS  INDIA,  AND  AS  FRANCE  INTENDS  TO  DEAL  WITH  MEXICO. 


Only  about  one-fourth  part  of  the  population  of  the  Otto- 
man Empire  are  Turks,  and  these,  as  masters,  hold  the 
remaining  three-fourths  in  subjection,  treating  them  as  an 
inferior  caste,  just  in  proportion  as  they  are  not  restrained 
by  a  fear  of  European  Powers.  A  very  large  proportion 
of  this  subject  class,  perhaps  fourteen  millions,  bear  the 
Christian  name.  This  fact  alone  would  be  sufficient  to 
show  that  the  days  of  Turkish  dominion  are  numbered. 

These  millions  of  Christians  could  not  be  compelled  much 
longer  to  endure  the  broken  yoke  of  the  Mussulman,  and 
the  Emperor  of  Russia  only  presented  a  most  obvious  fact 
to  the  English  cabinet,  when  he  intimated  that  it  would 
be  wise  to  make  some  proper  provision  for  the  approaching 
change.  It  was,  however,  urged,  both  in  England  and  by 
those  who  sympathized  with  England  here,  that  although 
the  power  of  the  Sultan  may  be  annihilated,  and  Turkey 
proper  disappear,  still  on  the  territory  of  the  Porte  a  Chris- 
tian State  may  be  established,  which,  under  the  protection 
of  the  Western  Powers,  may  give  a  Christian  civilization 


156  TURKEY  A   COLONIAL  DEPENDENCY, 

to  the  East,  while  barbarism  and  oppression  would  be  the 
result  of  the  occupation  of  Russia.  Thus  it  was  declared 
that  the  war  was  one  of  Christian  civilization  against  the 
barbarous  fanaticism  of  the  North.  This  opinion  swayed 
many  Christian  minds  in  this  country,  who  dreamed  of  free 
Christian  states,  perhaps  republics,  dotting  all  the  East, 
under  the  protection  of  England. 

It  is  not  very  difficult,  certainly  not  impossible,  to  form 
an  opinion  of  what  the  result  of  France  and  English  domi- 
nion would  be  if  extended  over  the  East.  Their  position, 
and  wants,  together  with  their  past  conduct  and  present 
policy,  surely  afford  the  data  for  an  accurate  judgment  of 
the  future. 

ISlo  one  certainly  is  credulous  enough  to  suppose  that 
either  of  these  Powers  was  carrying  on  war  merely  to  deliver 
the  oppressed,  or  to  promote  in  any  way  the  general  wel- 
fare of  mankind,  unless  at  the  same  time  their  own  interests 
were  in  some  way  to  be  advanced,  or  their  own  ambition 
to  be  gratified.  To  build  upon  Eastern  soil  such  a  nation 
or  nations  as  France  and  England  now  are,  rivals  of  them- 
selves in  wealth,  civilization  and  power,  to  restore  in  short, 
to  the  East  its  old  prosperity,  and  infuse  an  independent 
life  into  states  to  be  erected  there :  this  was  not  in  all  their 
thoughts. 

]^ay,  more,  such  a  result  is  not  only  contrary  to  every 
feature  of  their  policy,  but  for  no  purpose  would  both  Eng- 
land and  France  put  their  fleets  and  armies  in  motion 
sooner,  than  to  forbid  and  prevent  the  interposition  between 
themselves  and  eastern  and  northern  Asia,  of  powerful  and 
independent  states.  Such  a  nation  as  the  United  States,  if 
one  could  arise  there,  would  be  attacked  by  the  western 
Powers,  for  far  more  urgent  reasons  than  have  moved  them 
to  the  war  on  Russia.  In  order  to  predict  the  results  of 
French  and  English  rule  in  these  regions,  it  is  only  neces- 
sary to  study  these  governments  as  they  are,  and  in  the  light 
of  their  history. 

In  the  very  outset  of  such  an  investigation,  a  fact  is  pre- 
sented whose  importance  settles  all.    Neither  France  nor 


HAD  THE  ATTACK  ON  RUSSIA  SUCCEEDED.       157 

England  can  hold  any  territory  outside  of  their  present 
home  limits  except  as  colonial  dependencies,  and  this  deter- 
mines of  course  the  policy  of  the  government  in  regard  to 
them.  ^N'either  of  these  Powers  desire,  or  would  ever  per- 
mit independent,  self-developing  communities  in  the  East, 
but  dependencies  only,  in  fact  if  not  in  form,  from  which 
tribute  could  be  in  some  manner  gathered  for  the  govern- 
ment and  country  at  home.  The  object  of  these  now  Allied 
Powers  is  to  manufacture  for  all  other  nations,  and  to  con- 
trol for  themselves  the  commerce  of  the  world.  What  they 
require  then  is  raw  material  for  their  mills,  and  markets 
for  their  products. 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  the  rule  of  France  or  England 
over  the  East  must  be  essentially  that  of  a  foreign  Power, 
whatever  the  relation  might  be.  There  are  no  affinities  of 
race  or  religion  which  might  produce  or  cement  a  union, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  there  are  violent  antipathies,  especi- 
ally in  regard  to  France,  which  are  not  to  be  removed,  or 
even  controlled,  except  by  the  arm  of  power.  The  con- 
nection between  races  thus  politically  united  can  be  of  one 
kind  only — ^that  of  masters  and  dependents.  In  similar 
cases,  then,  what  have  been  the  results  ?  What  is  the  effect 
of  English  dominion  upon  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  mil- 
lions which  she  governs  in  the  East  already  ?  Turkey  and 
the  adjacent  regions  may  learn  a  lesson  from  British  India. 
From  the  Merchants^  Magazine,  than  which  there  is  no 
better  authority  either  here  or  in  Europe,  the  following 
statistical  information  has  been  derived,  which  will  show 
how  India  stands  related  to  Great  Britain,  and  how  she  is 
affected  by  her  rule ; 

"  During  the  last  fifteen  years,  there  has  been  accruing 
from  this  effeminate  people  the  vast  sum  of  £340,760,000, 
of  which  sum  but  £5,000,000  have  been  spent  iu  public 
improvements.  Its  revenue  in  India  is  twenty-seven  mil- 
lion pounds,  of  which  but  sixty  thousand  pounds  are  spent 
for  the  education  of  children.  Its  military  expenditures, 
in  1839,  were  eight  millions  pounds ;  in  1852,  twelve  mil- 


158  '  TURKEY  A  COLONIAL   DEPENDENCY 

lions  pounds,  or  about  forty-six  per  cent,  of  the  whole 
revenue.  The  taxes  on  the  lands  amount  to  twelve  millions 
pounds  annually,  averaging  from  sixty  to  ninety  per  cent, 
of  the  whole  production  of  the  soil.  Wages  of  a  laborer 
from  six  to  eight  cents  a  day.  Salt  is  not  allowed  to  he  manu- 
factured, and  every  pound  consumed  pays  three-fourths  of  a 
penny,  tax." 

In  addition  to  other  articles,  India  can  produce  more 
opium  than  Europe  consumes,  and  therefore  England  sends 
a  fleet  and  army  to  China,  and  says,  "  You  must  buy  from 
"  me  so  much  opium  each  year,  or  I  shall  lay  your  com- 
"  mercial  towns  in  ashes."  China  replied  that  this  poison 
was  ruining  her  subjects,  body  and  soul,  and  that  she  had 
no  need  of  opium,  indeed,  would  be  in  every  respect  hap- 
pier and  more  prosperous  without  it.  England's  answer 
was,  "  I  must  realize  a  certain  sum  from  my  opium ;  it  can 
"  not  be  done  unless  you  buy,  and  buy  you  must.  Here 
"  am  I,  with  shotted  guns  and  matches  lighted." 

This  is  a  sample  of  the  colonial  policy  of  England,  and 
this  is  the  prosperity  and  civilization  which  she  confers 
upon  her  present  possessions  in  the  East.  Such,  modified 
only  by  circumstances,  is  her  governmental  scheme  for 
colonies. 

Colonial  policy,  as  a  whole,  may  be  regarded  as  a  system 
designed  to  convey  to  the  coffers  of  the  home  or  ruling 
country  the  largest  possible  amount  of  treasure,  with  the 
least  possible  expenditure.  England  needs  colonies  to  raise 
her  raw  material  and  grain  for  her  workmen,  and  for  these 
she  wishes  to  pay  with  her  manufactured  products,  at  prices 
secured  by  a  monopoly  of  the  trade. 

This  would  be  the  governing  principle  of  her  policy,  as 
well  as  of  France,  if  they  should  gain  control  of  Turkey, 
and  the  regions  around  the  Euxine  and  the  Caspian.  It 
would  be  there,  as  in  India,  a  system  of  oppression  and 
exhausting  demands.  These  countries  would  be  allowed 
to  produce  nothing  which  could  be  supplied  by  the  ruling 
race. 


HAD  THE  ATTACK  ON  RUSSIA  SUCCEEDED.       159 

Turkey  would  possess  neither  manufactures  nor  an  inde- 
pendent commerce,  and  consequently  neither  a  high  state 
of  civilization  nor  wealth.  She  would  be  confined  to  agri- 
cultural labor,  with  wages  at  the  minimum  rate,  to  be  paid 
for  by  inferior  goods  at  such  prices  as  can  be  maintained 
where  competition  is  not  allowed.  Even  now,  England  ab- 
sorbs thirtj^-seven  per  cent,  of  the  whole  commerce  of 
Turkey,  and  she  derives  from  thence  one-fourth  part  of 
all  the  grain  that  is  imported  for  her  operatives.  Hence 
her  anxiety  concerning  the  occupancy  of  the  Danubian 
provinces. 

The  term  colonial  policy  is  used  here  because,  as  has 
been  stated  already,  whatever  external  political  form  the 
relation  between  the  East  and  western  Powers  might  as- 
sume, it  would  be  virtually  one  of  colonial  dependency,  be- 
cause this  is  absolutely  required  by  the  commercial  interests 
involved. 

Lamartine  has  declared  that  England  would  sacrifice  all 
Europe  to  her  commerce,  and  the  remark  finds  its  reason 
in  her  history.  If  any  are  disposed  to  believe  that  India 
should  not  be  cited  as  a  fair  example  of  her  policy,  let  him 
consult  our  own  colonial  history,  and  observe  the  systematic 
and  oppressive  course  pursued  by  the  mother  country  to 
repress  manufactures  and  commerce  here,  loading  us  with 
restrictions  and  prohibitions,  and  discouraging  every  de- 
scription of  industrial  effort  which  looked  either  to  inde- 
pendent existence,  or  to  the  production  of  anything  which 
England  could  make  or  buy  for  us  with  her  goods,  and 
grasping  the  profits  of  our  carrying  trade  by  compelling  a 
re-shipment  in  England  of  our  exports  to  foreign  countries. 
What  an  able  writer  has  said  in  regard  to  France  and  her 
relations  to  the  East,  her  designs  upon  Turkey,  illustrates 
with  entire  accuracy  the  policy  of  the  western  Powers. 
Having  stated  that  up  to  1842  France  desired  the  decay 
and  dismemberment  of  Turkey,  he  proceeds : 

"  The  question  recurs.  Why  has  she  changed  her  policy, 
and  why  to-day  does  she  help  to  rivet  the  chains  by  which 


160  TURKEY  A   COLONIAL   DEPENDENCY, 

twelve  millions  of  Christians  are  made  the  slaves  of  a  single 
Turk  ?  We  answer  at  once,  it  is  not  the  holy  principles 
of  justice,  honor,  and  right,  but  the  desire  of  commercial 
supremacy,  that  leads  her  to  attempt  to  stifle  the  cry  of 
millions  for  the  blessings  of  civilization,  manufactures  and 
commerce. 

"  To  prove  this,  let  us  examine  the  nature  of  the  trade 
with  Turkey,  and  also  its  amount.  By  these  tables  (the 
details  are  omitted  here)  it  will  be  seen  at  once  that  the 
trade  of  Turkey  gives  employment  to  a  ninth  part  of  the 
mercantile  marine  of  France  ;  that  it  consumes  her  manu- 
factures to  the  amount  of  twenty-seven  million  francs,  and 
above  all,  furnishes  her  with  a  raw  commodity  that  is  the 
basis  of  her  manufactures,  and  upon  the  supply  of  which 
depends  the  prosperity  of  her  cities  and  people.  In  addi- 
tion to  this,  the  increase  of  her  manufactures  is  diminishing 
her  capability  of  producing  grain  enough  to  feed  them, 
and  the  failure  of  a  single  crop  of  grain  might  precipitate 
the  nation  into  a  revolution. 

"  The  care  of  its  present  rulers,  who  are  never  too  firmly 
seated,  is  to  provide  labor  and  food  for  the  people.  ITow, 
the  raw  materials  and  provisions  must  come  from  countries 
where  manufactures  have  no  hold,  and  all  are  producers. 
Prior  to  1830,  and  even  to  1840,  Eussia  was  one  of  the 
nations  which  could  supply  her,  and  in  all  probability 
would  for  years  to  come,  to  any  extent  in  case  of  emer- 
gency. But  Russia  pjvhib'ited  her  manufactures  in  order  to 
encourage  her  own,  and  a  single  stroke  of  the  Czar's  pen 
could  drive  her  peasants  into  rebellion." 

Here,  let  it  be  remarked,  is  the  true  cause  of  this  war, 
aside  from  its  religious  features  and  the  Papal  ambition. 
Eussia  had  been  to  England  and  France  only  as  a  huge 
agricultural  colony,  supplying  them  with  grain  and  raw 
commodities,  and  receiving  in  return  their  goods.  Tired 
of  this  dependent  life,  which  the  Eussian  statesmen,  and 
more  especially  the  comprehensive  mind  of  Nicholas  saw, 
could  never  result  in  a  real  civilization,  it  was  determined 


HAD  THE  ATTACK  ON  RUSSIA  SUCCEEDED.       161 

to  build  Tip  for  Russia  a  manufacturing  and  commercial 
system  of  her  own. 

If  she  succeeds,  she  will  not  only  consume  her  own  raw 
commodities  and  her, grain  at  home,  but  with  her  manufac- 
tures she  will  meet  France  and  England  in  the  markets  of 
the  world.  To  prevent  this  independent  growth,  to  repress 
the  expanding  life  and  civilization  of  a  sister  nation,  France 
and  England  have  taken  up  arms.  It  is  a  war  whose  de-\ 
sign  is  to  hold  Russia  in  a  dependent  and  semi-barbarous 
state,  as  a  mere  producer  of  raw  commodities,  and  Russia 
is  fighting  for  independence  and  the  right  of  self-develop- 
ment ;  while  Jesuitism  has  taken  advantage  of  commercial 
interest  to  involve  the  world,  and  crush  if  possible  the 
great  rival  of  the  Papacy. 

The  writer  already  quoted  goes  on  to  say :  "  Turkey 
"alone  could  be  made  to  subserve  her  ends.  She  would 
"receive  her  manufactures  at  three  per  cent.,  and  pay  for 
"  them  in  that  raw  commodity  so  necessary  to  France,  and 
"then  in  addition  to  this,  the  rich  fields  of  Moldavia  and 
"  Wallachia  were  loaded  with  grain  waiting  to  be  borne 
"  to  a  hungry  people.  As  Lamartine  remarks,  Turkey  is  a 
"  necessity  to  the  existence  of  France. 

"  Let  civilization  with  its  magic  power  once  be  felt  upon 
her  soil,  and  a  Christian  population  would  make  the  whole 
nation  resound  with  the  sound  of  industry  and  manufac- 
tures ;  she  would  become  the  consumer  of  her  own  products 
and  raw  material,  and  as  a  direct  result,  diminish  the  power 
of  France."  Speaking  of  the  Crimean  war  he  proceeds  as 
follows — it  would  be  well  if  every  American  would  listen 
to  his  words : 

•*The  war  they  (the  Allies)  are  now  waging  is  not  to  save 
Turkey,  but  to  cripple  and  destroy  the  commercial  pros- 
perity of  Russia.  They  have  combined  to  set  bounds  to 
the  progress  of  a  nation  that  first  opened  to  them  and  their 
merchant-fleets  the  whole  commerce  of  the  Black  Sea,  and 
which  poured  out  the  blood  of  her  children  like  water  in 
order  to  wring  from  the  barbarous  Turk  that  great  boon 
11 


162  TURKEY  A   COLONIAL   DEPENDENCY, 

to  trade  and  commerce.  Eoth  are  leagued  together  that 
they  may  monopolize  the  commerce  of  Europe  and  destroy 
the  commerce  and  manufactures  of  Russia.  If  they  suc- 
ceed in  this  case,  to  whom,  let  us  inquire,  will  they  next 
prescribe  the  limits  of  their  possessions  and  the  amount  of 
their  trade  ?  "Who  appointed  them  to  set  limits  to  the  pro- 
gress of  nations  and  the  amount  of  their  commerce  ?  For 
we  must  never  forget  that  if  France  and  England  possess 
the  right  to  set  bounds  to  the  expansion  of  Russia,  they 
possess  also  the  same  right  in  regard  to  us.  Are  we  told 
that  they  are  warring  to  preserve  the  integrity  of  an 
empire  ? 

"  Who  but  these  Powers  robbed  Turkey  of  Greece,  and 
threatened  by  force  of  arms  to  prevent  Russia  from  aiding 
the  Sultan  from  bringing  Mohammed  Ali  under  subjection, 
and  thus  save  a  flourishing  state  to  the  Empire  ?  Hear  the 
official  order  of  the  British  Government  upon  this  topic  of 
the  integrity  of  Turkey :  '  To  maintain  the  integrity  of 
'  the  Ottoman  Empire  in  the  sense  sometimes  attributed  to 
^the  phrase  can  never  be  a  political  duty,  for  the  simple 
*  reason  that  it  is  a  political  impossibility.  Europe  has  been 
'  maintaining  this  fabric  for  nearly  a  century ;  and  how  has 
'  it  been  maintained  ? 

" '  Half  its  dominions  have  been  lost.  Algiers,  Egypt, 
Greece,  the  Archipelago,  and  Bessarabia,  were  once  por- 
tion of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  To  what  governments  do 
they  pertain  now  ?  "What  justice  did  Turkey  receive  at 
the  hands  of  Europe  when  the  Porte  was  excluded  from 
the  provisions  of  1815  ?  when  the  Greek  insurgents  were 
protected  by  the  Allies  against  their  legitimate  mother? 
when  the  Sultan  was  compelled  by  the  five  Powers  not 
■only  to  pardon  a  rebellious  vassal  that  had  threatened  the 
very  throne  of  Ottoman,  but  to  confirm  this  rebel  in  the 
hereditary  possession  of  his  Pachalic  ?  In  every  instance 
of  intervention  which  has  occurred  since  the  decline  of  the 
Turkish  Empire,  the  interposing  States  have  enforced  con- 
clusions theoretically  irreconcilable  with  the  rights  of  an 


HAD  THE  ATTACK  ON  RUSSIA  SUCCEEDED.       163 

independent  monarchy,    lifor  could  it  possibly  be  other- 
wise. 

"<The  plain  truth  is,  that  a  dominion  so  universally 
ruinous  and  unnatural  could  not  really  be  maintained  in 
its  integrity ;  nor  can  all  the  Powers  of  Europe  do  more 
than  mitigate  the  successive  symptoms  of  decay,  and  avert 
by  'prudent  concert  the  consequences  of  a  violent  catastrophe.^ 
Such  is  the  testimony  of  an  organ  that  controls  the  public 
opinion  of  England,  and  speaks  the  sentiments  of  its  min- 
istry." 

This  was  its  language  while  England  was  considering  the 
proposition  of  I^icholas,  ere  it  was  thought  that  a  more 
profitable  connection  could  be  formed  with  France,  and 
while  England  thought  equally  with  the  Emperor  of  Russia, 
that  the  consequences  of  the  sudden  fall  of  Turkey  ought 
to  be  averted  by  ^^  prudent  concert^^  the  very  course  Nicho- 
las proposed. 

"What,"  continues  this  writer,  "was  the  declaration 
afterward  ?  They  asserted  that  they  were  sick  of  talking 
about  upholding  Turkey,  and  they  were  warring  against 
Russia  to  prevent  her  from  reaching  the  Bosphorus.  At- 
tempt to  disguise  the  fact  as  we  may,  it  is  a  war  in  behalf 
of  barbarism,  at  the  expense  of  civilization,  and  incited  by 
a  nation  that  has  robbed  India  of  every  right  she  ever  pos- 
sessed, destroyed  her  manufactures,  starved  her  people,  and 
plundered  her  treasures ;  the  other  Power  robbed  Algiers 
from  the  Empire,  obtained  by  means  of  fraud  its  ablest 
defender,  and  to  crown  their  claim  to  honor,  burned  in 
caves  the  men  who  dared  to  defend  their  native  soil. 

"  When  France  occupied  Algiers,  she  said  it  was  but  a 
counterpoise  to  England's  Malta.  lN"ow,  the  two  Powers 
combine  to  forever  exclude  Russia  from  that  sea  to  which 
she  has  the  same  right  as  they.  The  entente  cordiale  exist- 
ing between  them  is  dangerous  to  every  commercial  nation, 
for  it  is  based  upon  an  understanding  that  no  nation  that 
they  consider  capable  of  being  their  rival  in  commerce  and 


164  TURKEY  A   COLONIAL   DEPENDENCY, 

trade  shall  extend  its  power  beyond  the  limits  they  ^x. 
To-day  the  United  States  may  feel  indifferent  as  to  the 
result  of  the  contest,  but  it  affects  our  own  security  and 
prosperity  as  a  commercial  nation.  Let  us  remember  that 
for  years  England  claimed  the  right  to  exclude  us  from  the 
East  India  trade.  But  she  then  lacked  allies.  To-day  we 
have  obtained  a  foothold  for  our  manufactures  even  in 
Persia,  where  she  sends  yearly  a  million  pounds  worth.  If 
she  can  check  Russia  in  her  march  to  the  ocean,  then  she 
can  summon  us  to  leave  the  Persian  Gulf,  for  now  she  has 
an  ally  as  grasping  as  herself. 

"  She  can  impress  our  seamen  and  search  our  vessels, 
for  she  has  declared,  by  her  agent,  and  that  lately,  since 
this  war  commenced,  that  while  she  assented  to  the  declar- 
ation of  Denmark's  and  Sweden's  neutrality,  she  did  not 
relinquish  her  right  of  search,  nor  retract  her  former  defi- 
nition as  to  the  rights  of  neutrals.  [These  demands  caused 
the  war  of  1812.]  ^N'o  American  can  be  indifferent  to  the 
result  of  this  war.  It  affects  us  as  an  expansive,  acquiring 
and  commercial  people;  it  affects  us  as  a  liberty-loving 
and  independent  nation ;  for  if  it  succeeds  in  drying  up  the 
streams  of  a  mighty  nation's  manufactures  and  trade,  it 
will  check  in  it  the  development  of  civilization,  the  intelli- 
gence of  the  masses,  and  their  approach  to  independence." 

No  more  truthful  words  than  these  have  been  spoken  in 
America,  even,  concerning  that  selfish  and  ungenerous  war. 
How  plain,  in  this  light,  appears  Lord  Clarendon's  declara- 
tion, that  the  Alliance  between  France  and  England  was 
intended  to  control  the  affairs  of  both  hemispheres ;  how 
significant  the  threats  borne  occasionally  from  France  and 
England  that  fleets  shall  winter  in  the  West  Indian  seas, 
and  that  any  vagaries  of  ours  will  be  duly  corrected,  such 
as  a  disposition  to  possess  ourselves  of  Cuba,  or  any  other 
scheme  not  approved  of  by  the  self-appointed  regulating 
Powers. 

Before  dismissing  this  part  of  the  subject,  it  may  not  be 
amiss  to  add  to  what  has  already  been  said  concerning  the 
preservation  of  the  Turkish  Empire,  the  opinion  of  the 


HAD  THE  ATTACK  ON  RUSSIA  SUCCEEDED.       165 

Edinburgh  jReview,  in  1836,  before  opinions  and  policy  had 
been  warped  by  a  French  Alliance : 

"  Our  fears  and  jealousies  of  Eussia  have  been  stimulated 
beyond  the  reasonable  pitch,  while  in  order  to  afford  an 
imaginary  counterpoise,  we  have  been  called  upon  to  exert 
our  utmost  energies  in  preserving  the  Turkish  Empire. 
To  encourage  us  in  so  quixotic  an  enterprise,  every  effort 
has  been  made  to  paint  the  Turks  as  employed  in  throwing 
off  the  weight  of  centuries  of  bigotry  and  mismanagement, 
and  ready  to  assist  us  ably  and  zealously  by  reforming  their 
institutions. 

**  We  can  not  hesitate  to  express  our  conviction  that  of 
all  delusions,  it  is  one  of  the  greatest  to  expect  that  the 
Turkish  Empire  can  or  will  be  long  maintained  in  its  pre- 
sent shape,  bolstered  up,  as  it  is,  by  foreign  support." 

IsTow,  England  calls  on  all  the  world  to  execrate  the 
name  and  memory  of  Nicholas,  because,  in  1844,  he  made 
the  same  declaration  to  England,  and  invited  her,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  precautioti,  to  provide  for  the  result — a  suggestion 
which  she  then  received  with  smiles,  and  did  not  reject 
until  1853. 

The  Beview,  of  1836,  proceeds  as  follows : 

"  History  offers  no  one  instance  of  an  empire  which,  after 
its  strength  and  sinews  have  moldered  away,  has  recovered 
them  again  by  the  mere  quiet  process  of  internal  improve- 
ment. ISTor  need  we  stop  to  show  how  absolute  a  barrier 
the  Mohammedan  religion  presents  between  the  Turks  and 
European  civilization ;  how  utterly  impossible  it  is  for  a 
state  not  Christian  to  enter  on  equal  terms  into  the  civil 
commonwealth  of  Christendom.  But  apart  from  such 
general  considerations,  no  one  who  has  seriously  observed 
the  national  character  and  peculiar  policy  of  the  Turks,  can 
imagine  the  possibility  of  an  empire  possessed  of  European 
strength  and  concentration,  composed  of  them  alone  or  in 
conjunction  with  subject  nations. 


166 


"  They  do  not  build,  but  destroy,  They  show  no  wish 
to  adorn  the  soil  which  they  inhabit,  or  connect  in  any  way 
the  existence  of  the  present  generation  with  posterity. 
Their  object  in  this  world  seems  to  be  mere  animal  exist- 
ence, as  completely  as  that  of  the  beasts  of  the  field." 

From  what  has  been  presented  two  conclusions  seem  to 
be  inevitable :  first,  that  the  Turkish  Empire,  as  such,  can 
not  be  maintained,  and  that  its  preservation  forms  no  part 
of  the  policy  of  the  Allied  Powers,  except  as  a  mere  depend- 
ency of  their  own ;  and,  second,  that  whatever  change  may 
occur  in  the /orm  of  the  government,  the  settled  policy  of 
France  and  England  requires  that  the  lands  of  Turkey 
should  form  merely  a  vast  plantation,  worked  for  the  bene- 
fit of  its  masters. 

It  may  well  be  asked,  therefore,  and  not  without  some 
anxiety,  what  benefits  will  the  world  at  large  receive,  and 
how  will  the  interests  of  the  United  States  be  aflTected,  if 
the  colonial  policy  of  the  Allied  Powers  is  extended  over 
Turkey,  and  if  their  fleets  should  control  the  Mediterranean 
and  the  Black  Sea  ?  If  the  yoke  of  the  Ottoman  Power 
could  be  broken  off  from  the  Christian  population  of  the 
Empire,  and  they  be  not  only  permitted  but  encouraged  to 
enter  upon  an  independent  career,  and  all  the  resources  of 
that  glorious  land  could  be  made  available  by  the  power 
of  a  true  Christian  civilization ;  then,  indeed,  there  might 
be  reason  for  rejoicing  if  the  march  of  Russia  could  be 
arrested. 

But  in  the  present  condition  of  Europe  this  can  not  be. 
England  and  France  have  chosen  to  terminate  that  arrange- 
ment by  which  the  Porte  might  have  tottered  on  yet  longer 
in  a  state  of  merely  nominal  independence,  and  the  only 
question  now  remaining  is,  by  whom  shall  Turkey  here- 
after be  exclusively  controlled — by  the  East  or  the  West  ? 
Another  inquiry  may  be  added :  will  it  be  better  for  other 
nations,  and  for  Turkey,  that  it  should  become  virtually  a 
colony  of  the  "Western  Powers,  or  that  it  should  be  incor- 


HAD  THE  ATTACK  ON  RUSSIA  SUCCEEDED.       167 

porated  witli  Eussia  ?  Between  these  two  alternatives  there 
seems  now  no  middle  ground. 

!N'othing  is  more  certain  than  that  France  and  England 
intend  to  apply  the  principles  of  the  Kussian  policy  to  the 
western  hemisphere,  and  they  have  seized  upon  the  rebellion 
as  the  entering  wedge  in  American  affairs.  Could  they 
succeed,  Mexico  would  first  of  all  be  shaped  into  a  French 
colony  in  reality,  whatever  the  forms  of  the  government 
might  be.  Maximilian,  if  once  seated  there,  would  be 
simply  a  crowned  puppet — the  imperial  overseer  of  a  French 
plantation. 

Texas  would  then  be  seized  on  the  first  pretext,  and 
gradually  the  South,  if  nominally  independent,  would  be- 
come merely  a  colony  to  raise  cotton,  sugar,  &c.,  for  the 
Allies,  and  the  Pacific  coast  would  if  possible  be  wrested 
from  our  possession. 

The  policy  of  France  and  England  contemplates  all  this, 
and  all  this  we  have  good  reason  to  believe  was  included  in 
the  original  scheme  of  the  Anglo-French  Alliance.  It  was 
against  America  as  well  as  Russia.  It  had,  as  English 
statesmen  said,  reference  to  both  hemispheres. 

Our  great  war  for  national  independence  is  yet  to  come, 
and  God  is  ridding  us  of  our  weakness,  and  bringing  out 
our  resources,  and  consolidating  our  strength,  that  we  ma/ 
be  prepared.  The  question  whether  we  are  to  be  subjected 
to  the  dictation  of  European  Powers  is  yet  to  be  settled. 


168     FUIURE  MOVEMENTS  OF  THE  GREAT  POWERS. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


FUTUBE  MOVEMENTS  OF  THE  GBEAT  POWERS. 


From  this  brief  review  of  a  portion  of  European  history, 
it  is  thought  that  not  only  can  the  present  attitude  of 
France  and  England  towards  America  be  fully  understood, 
but  that  the  future  relations  of  the  great  Powers  to  each 
other  may  also  be  foreseen. 

The  rebellion  has  shown  us  the  deep-seated  and  now 
active  hostility  of  some  of  the  chief  European  nations,  and 
we  see  clearly  that  this  is  the  result  of  settled  national 
policy.  The  sudden  development  of  our  military  strength, 
and  especially  the  rapidity  with  which  we  have  created  a 
navy  among  the  most  powerful  in  the  world,  will  cause  us 
now,  far  more  than  ever  before,  to  arouse  the  jealousy  of 
Europe.  These  things,  with  the  movement  of  France  upon 
Mexico,  and  the  unfriendly  temper  of  England,  have  brought 
us  within  the  disturbed  circle  of  European  operations  and 
policy,  and  henceforth  we  shall  be  compelled  to  act  in  refer- 
ence to  the  movements  of  the  great  Powers  that  control 
the  world,  because  their  ambition  and  jealousies  will  no  longer 
permit  us  to  remain  isolated  and  pursue  an  independent 
course.  They  seem  determined  to  apply  to  America  the  Euro- 
pean system  of  interference,  in  order  to  preserve  "  the  bal- 
ance of  power,"  in  other  words  they  propose  to  combine  to 


FUTURE  MOVEMENTS  OF  THE  GREAT  POWERS.     169 

strike  down  every  too  prosperous  nation.  If  by  our  intel- 
ligence, our  action,  enterprise  and  resources,  we  are  in  the 
estimation  of  France  and  England  becoming  too  strong, 
they  propose  in  some  way  to  interfere  and  arrest  our  pro- 
gress. This  is  not  a  sudden  passing  caprice,  but  a  settled 
rule  of  national  action,  applicable  to  both  hemispheres,  as 
the  English  have  declared;  and  the  same  spirit  which 
made  an  English  theatre  ring  with  applause  when  it  was 
announced  that  the  Emperor  of  Russia  was  dead,  caused 
the  shouts  of  Englishmen  on  the  sea  when  they  saw  the 
flame  of  our  ships,  lired  by  a  pirate  fitted  out  in  their  own 
harbors,  and  to  congratulate  each  other  upon  the  supposed 
ruin  of  the  Great  Eepublic. 

It  seems  evident  now,  that  the  four  nations  which  will 
control  the  destinies  of  the  world  in  the  immediate  future, 
are  France  and  England,  Russia  and  America.  The  armies 
and  the  navies,  the  commerce,  and  the  manufacturing  power 
of  the  nations,  are  mostly  in  their  hands.  They  wield  the 
forces  of  the  world,  whether  material  or  intellectual,  moral 
or  religious. 

They  represent  three  grand  divisions  of  the  human  race, 
the  Sclavonic,  the  Latin,  and  the  Teutonic,  and  the  three 
forms  of  religion  by  which  Christendom  is  divided,  the 
Greek  Church,  the  Latin  or  Roman  Catholic,  and  the  Pro- 
testant. 

These  races  are  evidently  drawing  apart  from  each  other 
and  preparing  for  a  separate  career.  The  Sclavonian  race 
tends  to  consolidate  upon  Russia,  the  Latins  are  drawing 
around  France,  and  while  the  Protestants  of  Europe  have 
as  yet  no  recognized  head,  owing  to  the  unnatural  alliance 
of  England  with  a  Papal  power,  the  United  States  is  the 
Protestant  head  of  the  West. 

These  three  forms  of  religion  tend  on  all  sides,  not  to 
union  and  friendship,  but  to  divergence  and  hostility.  The 
Papacy  is  incapable  of  alliance  or  true  peace  with  any  form 
of  religion.  Her  claim  is  ever  the  same — ^to  be  the  one  only 
and  exclusive  Church,  with  the  right  and  the  duty  to  sup- 
press every  other  whenever  she  has  the  power.    As  she  has 


170     FUTURE  MOVEMENTS  OF  THE  GREAT  POWERS. 

been,  she  will  continue  to  be  tbe  active  and  uncompromis- 
ing enemy  both  of  the  Greek  Church  and  the  Protestant. 

Between  the  Protestant  Church  and  the  Grreek  or  Rus- 
sian, there  is  no  hostility  beyond  that  which  has  sprung 
from  local  and  temporary  causes.  Still,  probably,  these 
will  not  coalesce,  their  mission  and  fields  of  action  are  dif- 
ferent, and  their  work  in  the  future  will  be  apart,  though 
there  appears  no  reason  at  present  why  they  should  be  rivals 
or  enemies.  Much  will  depend  upon  the  future  position  of 
England.  Were  she  the  friend  of  Pussia,  then  England, 
America  and  Pussia,  might  together  spread  Christianity 
over  the  East. 

The  only  safety,  however,  of  this  nation  lies  in  acting  in 
view  of  the  present  temper  and  policy  of  the  leading  powers 
of  Europe.  The  causes  that  led  to  the  attack  on  Pussia, 
which  leagued  France  and  England  in  hostility  to  us,  are 
not  only  in  existence  still,  but  they  will  work  with  greater 
intensity  in  the  future. 

Pussia,  at  the  head  of  the  Greek  Church,  is  more  earn- 
estly intent  than  ever  upon  carrying  her  government  and 
her  religion  over  the  East.  She  is  fully  determined  to  gain 
back  from  the  oppressing  and  usurping  Turk  the  city  of 
the  Eastern  Empire  which  he  wrested  from  her  mother 
church.  Pussia  will  not  pause  until  another  mighty  effort 
has  been  made  to  establish  herself  upon  the  Dardanelles 
and  the  Mediterranean.  Already,  if  the  English  Press  is 
correct,  she  has  a  new  fleet  upon  the  Black  Sea,  and  the 
Allies  have  done  Pussia  a  priceless  service  b}^  compelling 
her  to  substitute  a  navy  of  modern  ships  for  the  worthless 
old  "  three-deckers"  which  were  sunk  at  Sebastopol. 

Erance  is  gathering  to  herself  the  nations  which  form 
the  Papal  Church,  and  aiming  to  restore  throughout  the 
world,  west  as  well  as  East,  the  lost  prestige  of  the  Latin 
Church,  and  obtain  the  power  and  the  glory  of  its  political 
head.  The  United  States  aims  to  extend  her  political  and 
religious  life,  the  power  of  Protestantism,  and  of  free  insti- 
tutions over  this  continent.  She  demands  room  and  liberty 
to  expand,  unhindered  by  any  power  of  Europe,  over  the 


FUTURE   MOVEMENTS   OF   THE   GREAT   POWERS.  171 

whole  field  of  her  proper  dominion ;  and  while  it  is  not 
necessary  that  she  should  conquer  either  north  or  south  of 
her  present  territory,  she  will  never  permit,  and  cannot 
without  peril  to  her  life,  a  hostile  monarchial  power  to  he 
established  on  her  border  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  check- 
ing her  progress.  It  is  somewhat  more  difficult  to  foresee 
the  future  position  of  England.  Her  policy  is  not  controlled 
by  attachment  to  a  church  or  faith  as  Russia  and  the  Latin 
nations  are ;  the  commercial  idea  is  her  pole  star,  and  this 
fact  alone  deprives  her  of  half  her  power,  for  no  nation  can 
be  truly  great  whose  chief  motive  of  action  is  the  making 
of  money.  In  no  case,  however,  is  it  safe  for  the  United 
States  to  trust  for  a  moment  upon  the  friendship  or  even 
neutrality  of  England.  She  will  cheer  on  every  nation  that 
may  attack  us,  and  aid  them  to  the  extent  of  her  power, 
and  this  will  be  done  for  a  long  time  to  come  in  spite  of  the 
influence  of  the  liberal  party. 

It  is  vain  to  suppose  that  England  will  ever  be  generous 
enough  to  feel  willing  that  we  should  become  greater  than 
herself.  Her  desire  to  see  us  "  taken  down"  will  be  stronger 
with  her  than  any  other  feeling.  The  present  monarchial, 
aristocratic  England,  cannot  be  the  friend  of  the  United 
States. 

It  seems  at  first  sight  not  improbable,  that  so  soon  as 
France  shall  reveal  somewhat  more  clearly,  her  design  of  a 
grand  combination  of  the  Latin  Powers  which  might  be 
used  against  England,  she  might  separate  herself  and  seek 
alliance  with  Russia  or  America,  or  both,  against  France. 

Will  she  dare  to  do  this  ?  France  is  at  her  doors  with 
an  army  that  she  cannot  match,  and  could  either  Russia 
or  America  help  her  with  troops  upon  her  own  soil  ?  Could 
they  do  this  if  disposed.  Will  not  England  find  hereafter 
her  only  safety  in  favoring  the  designs  of  France  precisely 
as  she  now  does,  and  did  in  the  Crimean  war  ? 

There  is  no  safety  for  the  United  States,  except  to  pre- 
pare herself  to  meet  the  hostility  of  France  and  England 
united.    It  may  not  for  the  present  manifest  itself  in  actual 


172     FUTURE  MOVEMENTS  OF  THE  GREAT  POWERS. 

war ;  that  will  depend  alone  upon  circumstances,  but  not 
far  in  the  future  the  collision  must  come. 

It  is  simply  impossible  that  England  and  France,  Russia 
and  America,  should  pursue  their  several  lines  of  national 
policy  and  not  come  into  conflct.  These,  policies,  on  the 
other  hand,  cannot  be  abandoned ;  the  national  life  is  bound 
up  in  them.  Russia  must  go  forward,  to  pause  is  for  the 
nation  to  die.  France  is  urged  on  by  the  traditions,  histo- 
ries, and  ambitions  of  a  mighty  race.  England  feels  that 
her  existence  is  at  stake,  and  no  man  can  doubt  the  future 
course  of  America  in  regard  to  foreign  interference  with 
this  continent  who  sees  the  determination  of  the  North  in 
this  war  to  maintain  our  nationality. 

A  great  conflict  then  lies  in  the  future.  Let  us  carefully 
study  the  resources  and  power  of  these  four  nations,  begin- 
ning with  the  only  one  that  promises  to  be  our  friend,  per- 
haps our  ally — Russia.  It  behooves  Americans  now,  if  never 
before,  to  understand  what  Russia  really  is. 


THEEB  SHOULD  BB  AN  AMERICAN  OPINION  OF   RUSSIA.     173 


CHAPTER    XV. 


THEKE  SHOULD  BE  AN  AMERICAN  OPINION  OF  RUSSIA. 

Althougli  Eussia  has  become  tlie  most  powerful  nation 
of  Europe,  she  remains  in  great  degree  unknown.  Her 
advance  upon  Europe  and  the  East  has  been  as  steady,  as 
resistless,  as  mysterious,  as  the  descent  of  a  glacier  from  the 
Alps.  All  the  force  of  earth  can  neither  turn  the  glacier 
backward,  nor  divert  it  from  its  course,  nor  even  arrest  its 
progress ;  nor  can  science  fully  explain  the  farce  that  pushes 
forward  the  enormous  mass.  There  remains,  however,  the 
fact,  that  year  by  year  it  encroaches  more  and  more  upon 
the  valley  below.  Each  summer  melts  off  a  little  of  its 
solid  front,  but  still  the  icy  boundary  of  to-day  is  beyond 
the  line  on  which  it  rested  a  year  ago. 

So  with  E-ussia.  Her  colossal  proportions  are  expanding 
still,  her  frontier  line  is  moving  on,  plowing  its  way  like 
the  edge  of  the  glacier  through  all  obstacles,  and  though 
we  hear  continually  of  losses  she  incurs,  and  of  defeats 
which  she  suffers,  we  find  that  notwithstanding  all,  she  has 
been  moving  on,  and  has  established  herself  in  new  pos- 
sessions, at  the  very  moment  when  the  rest  of  Europe  was 
rejoicing  over  her  supposed  discomfiture.     Statesmen,  polit- 


174     THERE   SHOULD   BE  AN  AMERICAN   OPINION  OF   RUSSIA. 

ical  economists,  even  historians,  give  no  adequate  explana- 
tion of  this  overshadowing  phenomenon,  no  satisfactory 
account  of  the  interior  life  which  is  thus  forcing  the  nations 
aside  to  make  room  for  the  growth  of  Russia.  Europe 
sneers  at  the  horde  of  northern  harharians,  but  then  she 
saw  the  best  appointed  army  and  the  ablest  commander  of 
modern  times  utterly  crushed  by  them,  and  hurled  in  bro- 
ken fragments  over  their  frontier,  and  this,  too,  when  up 
to  the  startling  result,  it  was  declared  that  Eussia  was 
beaten  in  every  battle,  that  her  capital  was  taken,  and  the 
Empire  was  ruined.  At  the  commencement  of  the  Crimean 
war,  we  were  informed  that  Eussia  was  exhausted  by  her 
disasters  in  the  Caucasus,  that  a  small  tribe  there  was  suffi- 
cient to  hold  her  power  at  bay,  that  she  had  no  money 
wherewith  to  prosecute  a  war,  that  her  army  was  formid- 
able only  on  paper,  scattered  through  her  vast  territory  in 
disconnected  detachments,  incapable  of  combined  action ; 
and  many  believed  and  asserted  that  Turkey  alone  was  an 
overmatch  for  her  foe  ;  and  yet  a  formidable  English  fleet 
spent  two  summers  in  the  Baltic  without  daring  to  look 
upon  Cronstadt,  and  the  most  formidable  armament  that 
the  world  perhaps  ever  saw,  spent  its  force  and  exhausted 
its  skill  for  two  years  in  vain  upon  a  single  Russian  outpost. 
England  and  France  met  not  the  unwieldy,  stupid,  almost 
helpless  giant  which  they  have  loved  to  describe  and  call 
Eussia,  but  the  living  power  of  a  great  nation,  whose  power 
has  been  wielded  with  a  skill  and  energy  at  least  equal  to 
to  their  own. 

Eussia  has  made  no  great  and  sudden  conquests  in 
Europe ;  she  has  poured  no  living  deluge  abroad  for  the 
desolation  of  the  world — a  tide  whose  ebb  follows  quickly 
after  the  swell  of  the  flood ;  but  she  is  the  more  formidable 
for  that  very  reason.  She  grows.  Her  progress  follows  the 
law  of  a  life,  and  its  development  is  after  the  model  of  a 
national  idea.  Herein  lies  her  strength ;  and  the  power  of 
this  life,  yet  young  and  vigorous,  will  carry  her  far  into  the 
future. 

Until  recently,  the  Empire  of  the  Czars  has  awakened 


THERE   SHOULD  BE  AN  AMERICAN  OPINION  OF  RUSSIA.     175 

very  little  attention  or  sympathy  in  the  American  mind. 
Its  remote  position,  and  the  channels  through  which  we 
have  obtained  our  scanty  information,  have  prevented  us 
from  forming  any  correct  and  well-defined  idea  of  its  pros- 
pects, resources  and  policy.  Most  Americans  have  been 
led  to  think  of  Russia  as  a  land  of  almost  perpetual  snow 
and  frost,  of  interminable  forests,  or  uninhabitable  plains, 
and  few  perhaps  have  asked  themselves,  how  in  such  frozen 
wastes  and  forest  solitudes,  seventy  millions  of  people  have 
not  only  contrived  to  exist,  but  have  grown  up  into  the 
most  formidable  nation  of  Europe.  Again,  thousands  re- 
gard her  as  an  assemblage  of  boisterous  hordes,  having  no 
common  life  or  bond,  held  together  by  the  power  of  a  mili- 
tary despotism,  and  ruled  over  by  a  half-savage  tyrant. 
Few  have  been  led  to  inquire  how,  upon  such  a  supposition, 
we  are  to  account  for  her  rapid  and  steady  advance  to  the 
foremost  position  of  the  eastern  world.  It  would  not  be 
easy  for  a  semi-barbarous  people,  with  merely  a  military 
tyrant  at  their  head,  to  reach  so  eminent  a  station  by  the 
very  side  of  the  civilization  of  western  Europe,  and  in  com- 
petition with  such  powers  as  England,  France,  and  Austria. 
The  national  policy  of  Russia  has  been  represented  to  Europe 
and  America  under  the  single  idea  of  a  perpetual  longing 
to  rush  on  Turkey,  and  seize  upon  Constantinople.  !N'early 
all  else  has  been  vailed  from  view.  The  true  character  of 
this  policy  and  its  real  objects  have  been  but  partially  un- 
derstood. Eussia  has,  moreover,  been  viewed  with  dislike 
or  indifference  by  Americans,  because  of  the  form  of  her 
government,  and  her  supposed  hatred  of  a  liberal  and  repub- 
lican policy.  She  has  been  regarded  as  the  determined  foe 
of  the  rights  of  man ;  as  neither  desiring  for  herself,  nor 
willing  to  admit  in  others,  any  other  form  of  civilization 
than  such  as  may  be  produced  by  an  absolute  military  des- 
potism. It  has  been  supposed  that  Russia  and  America 
are  the  true  opposites  and  even  antagonists  of  each  other, 
the  one  representing  a  half-civilized  oriental  despotism,  the 
other  rational  republicanism.  The  thought  once  scarce 
entered  the  American  mind  that  a  mutual  regard  might 


176     THERE   SHOULD   BE   AIJT  AMERICAN   OPINION  OF   RUSSIA. 

spring  up  between  the  two  Powers,  and  that  they  may  yet 
become  the  friendly  representatives  of  the  two  leading  ideas 
of  the  world. 

It  is  quite  evident  that  the  popular  opinion  of  the  great 
iN'orthern  Power,  does  not  correspond  either  with  her  past 
history  or  her  present  position.  Her  power  and  resources 
have  been  underrated  even  in  Europe.  France  and  Eng- 
land have  miscalculated  the  strength  of  their  antagonist. 
Europe  has  misjudged  her,  because  the  sources  of  her  vitality 
are  but  imperfectly  known.  Yet  it  is  manifest  that  she  has 
interior  springs,  whose  copious  flow  supplies  a  broad  and 
steady  stream  of  national  life.  Pussia  presents  every  ex- 
ternal sign  of  a  living  organism — not  merely  an  aggregation 
of  tribes,  of  fragments  bound  into  a  mass  by  present  cir- 
cumstances, which  in  any  important  change  may  fall 
asunder.  The  resistance  which,  in  1812,  she  offered  to 
western  Europe,  was  that  of  an  organized  body,  animated 
by  a  national  life.  There  was  a  national  heart  beating  with 
hot  enthusiasm  in  the  midst  of  her  snows;  there  was  a 
national  feeling  smarting  under  a  national  wound ;  there 
was  unyielding  resolution — ready  to  sacrifice  all  things  for 
the  preservation  of  their  country,  determined  to  make  of 
that  country  a  desert,  if  the  invader  could  not  be  otherwise 
expelled ;  and  it  was  the  result  of  a  living  force  that  at  last 
swept  her  foes  away.  It  was  not  a  subdued  or  dispirited 
people,  not  a  people  fired  with  no  love  of  country,  that 
pressed  upon  and  bore  down  the  retreating  forces  of  Bona- 
parte. Since  that  period  there  has  been  a  steady  enlarge- 
ment and  increase  of  vigor,  as  by  growth  from  a  strong 
central  life. 


THE  ESSENTIAL   ELEMENTS   OP  NATIONAL  POWER.         177 


CHAPTER   XVI. 


THE  ESSENTIAL  ELEMENTS  OP  NATIONAL  POWER. 


In  this  age  of  the  world,  when  civilization,  instead  of 
being  confined  to  a  single  luminous  point,  is  diffused  over 
so  large  a  portion  of  the  world's  surface,  and  a  universal 
empire  is  no  longer  possible,  there  are  certain  conditions 
without  which  no  great  nation  can  come  into  existence — 
certain  elements  of  strength  necessary  to  procure  for  a 
people  the  first  rank  among  the  Powers  of  earth.  The  first 
of  these  conditions  is  an  extensive  territory.  In  the  midst  i^ 
of  the  powerful  kingdoms  of  modern  times,  no  petty  state,*?*,  w*^ 
with  limited  domain,  could  exercise  any  important  sway*  * 
Greece,  placed  on  her  ancient  territorial  footing,  and  pos- 
sessed again  of  her  former  resources,  would  now  be  but  a 
"little  one"  among  the  nations.  Egypt  could  not  now 
sway  the  world's  sceptre  from  the  valley  of  the  Mle,  nor 
could  old  Chaldea  be  in  this  age  the  "  Lady  of  Kingdoms." 
Even  if  Rome  should  arise  once  more,  possessed  of  all  her 
Italian  and  Eastern  power,  leaving  Russia,  France,  Eng- 
land, and  the  German  states,  as  they  now  are,  she  would 
no  longer  be  the  mistress  of  the  world.  To  hold  rank 
among  the  present  "  great  Powers"  of  Europe,  a  territory 
is  required,  capable  of  sustaining  a  population  of  at  least 
12 


178         THE  ESSENTIAL  ELEMENTS   OF  NATIONAL  POWER. 

thirty  millions  with  the  ordinary  cultivation  and  modes  of 
life,  and  therefore  the  "  four  great  Powers"  must  remain  at 
the  head  of  affairs.  But  it  is  easy  to  see  that  if  any  one  of 
these  should  possess  a  territory  capable  of  supporting  a 
population  equal  to  that  of  France,  England,  and  Austria, 
combined,  without  being  more  densely  peopled  than  they 
now  are,  then,  other  things  being  equal,  such  a  power 
would  hold  all  Europe  at  her  control,  because  all  know 
that  the  other  remaining  nations  could  not  be  consolidated 
into  a  permanent  union,  though  they  may  become  allies  in 
an  hour  of  danger. 

In  estimating,  therefore,  the  future  position  of  the  present 
powers  of  earth,  extent  of  territory  and  capacity  for  popu- 
lation must  be  the  basis  of  the  calculation ;  for  a  state  of 
thirty  millions,  of  to-day,  may,  in  a  few  years,  stand  in  the 
presence  of  another  with  one  hundred  millions  of  people. 
But  there  must  be  not  only  extent  of  territory,  but  it  must 
be  so  situated  as  to  be  easily  and  safely  controlled  by  one 
central  government.  It  is  evident  that  India,  Canada,  and 
Australia  add  little  to  the  effective  strength  of  England. 
In  proportion  as  they  wax  strong  and  prosperous  will  their 
sympathy  with  the  home  government  be  weakened ;  and 
therefore  England,  even  with  her  great  possessions,  may  be 
regarded  as  having  reached  the  zenith  of  her  power — ^be- 
cause she  can  not  construct  from  her  separated  dependencies 
one  consolidated  dominion.  When  it  is  said,  however,  that 
she  has  reached  her  culminating  point,  the  meaning  is  not 
that  she  is  now  destined  to  an  absolute  decline ;  it  is  not 
necessary,  even,  to  suppose  that  she  will  make  no  progress 
hereafter,  but  if  another  Power  shall  soon  appear  in  Europe, 
with  one  hundred  millions  of  people,  with  a  common 
nationality,  occupying  one  connected  territory,  and  directed 
by  one  sufficiently  strong  central  government ;  if,  indeed, 
such  an  one  has  already  taken  its  position  on  the  theatre 
of  Europe,  then,  not  only  England,  but  France  and  Austria, 
may  be  regarded  as  having  passed  the  height  of  their  in- 
fluence, though  their  absolute  power  may  yet  continue  to 
increase.    Against  such  a  Power,  the  balance  could  not  long 


THE   ESSENTIAL   ELEMENTS   OF  NATIONAL   POWER.         179 

be  preserved  by  any  combination  of  western  Europe.  More- 
over, to  secure  national  greatness,  based  upon  national 
independence,  tbe  territory  of  a  people  should  stretch 
through  so  many  degrees  of  latitude,  and  should  embrace 
such  a  variety  of  position  and  climate  as  to  procure  within 
itself  the  main  productions  of  the  globe.  In  this  respect, 
neither  England,  France,  nor  Austria,  are  so  situated  as  to 
remain  the  very  foremost  nations  of  the  world,  though 
France  and  England,  but  especially  the  latter,  have  thus  far 
been  able  to  supply  the  deficiency  by  a  command  of  the 
Open  commerce  of  the  globe.  But  it  is  easy  to  perceive, 
that,  in  case  of  long-continued  war,  or  if  other  states  should 
adopt  a  restricted  commercial  policy,  every  nation  incap- 
able of  extensive  home  production,  would  suffer  severely, 
and  perhaps  be  permanently  crippled.  A  nation  then,  to 
become  not  only  great,  but  independent  and  secure,  must 
possess  the  means  of  a  self-sustaining  life,  and  this  can  only 
be  when  its  territory  stretches  through  several  degrees  of 
latitude. 

Again,  this  territory  must  possess  the  means,  natural  or 
artificial,  of  free  and  extensive  internal  communication. 
Large  lakes,  or  a  chain  of  inland  seas,  and  navigable  rivers, 
will  probably  always  afford  the  most  important  and  cheapest 
channels  for  commercial  exchanges,  and  a  country  thus 
furnished  by  the  Creator  will  possess  great  advantages  over 
one  not  thus  favored;  for,  although  modern  science  has 
put  it  in  the  power  of  any  people  to  supply  an  adequate 
means  of  cheap  and  rapid  transit,  yet  navigable  rivers,  and 
internal  lakes  and  seas,  are  an  additional  advantage,  con- 
ferring a  superiority  upon  the  nation  possessing  them. 
Any  country  may  be  traversed  by  rail  roads,  but  when,  in 
addition  to  these,  Glod  has  scooped  out  the  rivers  and  beds 
of  navigable  waters,  there  is  a  double  system  and  a  double 
advantage.  Inasmuch,  therefore,  as  God  has  designed  the 
earth  as  the  theater  of  national  life,  we  are  led  to  believe 
that  those  great  divisions  of  its  surface  which  are  provided 
with  adequate  systems  of  lakes  and  navigable  rivers,  bring- 
ing all  parts  into  connection  with  each  other,  were  thus 


180         THE   ESSENTIAL   ELEMENTS   OF  NATIONAL  POWER. 

constructed  in  order  to  become  the  seats  of  national  power,' 
and  even  though  such  a  territory  may  be  now  unoccupied, 
or  but  thinly  inhabited,  we  are  assured  that  the  design 
of  God  will  be  accomplished.  .  The  future  of  America  may, 
for  this  reason,  be  correctly  inferred  from  the  structure  of 
its  territory,  although  large  portions  of  it  are  lying  waste, 
without  an  inhabitant ;  and  if  we  would  form  an  opinion 
of  the  prospects  of  Russia,  we  must  study  her  systems  of 
rivers,  and  her  general  means  of  carrying  on  an  interior 
trade,  by  which  her  remote  provinces  may  be  united  by 
common  interests,  and  bound  to  a  common  head. 

Moreover,  since  modern  skill  and  science  have  converted 
the  seas  into  the  great  thoroughfares  of  the  world,  no  nation 
with  an  interior  position  can  hereafter  hold  the  first  rank 
among  the  powers  of  earth.  The  great  nation  of  the  future 
must  have  free  access  to  the  ocean — must  not  only  hold 
free  communication  with  the  sea  from  all  points,  but  must 
possess  sufficient  and  convenient  harbors  as  commercial 
marts,  and  depots  of  maritime  power. 

The  admirable  position  of  England,  in  the  midst  of  the 
seas,  has  given  free  scope  to  the  genius  of  her  people,  and 
enabled  her  to  exert  a  controlling  influence  upon  the  aflFairs 
of  nations ;  but  should  a  nation  arise  in  Europe,  with  a 
population  many  times  greater  than  her  own — equal  in 
intelligence  and  skill — witb  a  proportionate  control  of  the 
ocean — in  that  case  England,  though  still  prosperous  and 
advancing,  would  hold  but  a  secondary  position ;  and  this 
would  be  equally  true  both  of  Austria  and  France.  Whether 
there  is  a  probability  of  the  rise  of  such  an  empire,  will  be 
one  of  the  questions  to  be  discussed  in  these  pages. 

Again,  a  nation  will  be  great  and  powerful,  other  things 
being  equal,  in  proportion  as  its  growth  is  the  progress  of 
a  single  race,  instead  of  a  mere  aggregation  of  dissimilar 
communities,  brought  by  conquest  under  the  dominion  of  a 
single  head.  The  one  is  a  dead  mass,  tending  ever  to  disso- 
lution ;  the  other  is  an  animate  body,  unfolding  a  life,  and 
tending  toward  maturity.  Every  mighty  nation  of  earth 
has  become  great  through  the  central  life-power  of  one 


THE   ESSENTIAL   ELEMENTS   OF   NATIONAL   POWER.         181 

dominant  race ;  and  the  growth  of  power  has  been  steady- 
so  long  as  there  was  sufficient  vitality  in  this  center  to  mold 
and  assimilate  all  foreign  material.  Another  important 
question,  then,  connected  with  the  prospects  of  the  Kussian 
Empire  is,  whether  its  population  consists  mainly  of  one 
race,  which  may  supply  a  national  life,  and  afford  a  true 
basis  of  national  unity.  If  such  a  race  exists,  speaking  a 
common  language,  bound  together  by  the  ties  of  common 
ancestry,  national  memories,  interests,  and  hopes,  creating 
a  family  pride  and  love  of  country ;  then  it  becomes  im- 
portant also  to  know  whether  this  race  possesses  a  clearly 
marked  individuality,  and  if  so,  whether  in  these  charac- 
teristics we  are  able  to  discover  the  elements  of  growth  and 
greatness. 

Still  another  element  of  national  power  exists,  where  a 
nation  is  knit  together  by  the  ties  of  a  common  religion, 
and  when  a  deep  religious  sentiment  pervades  the  public 
mind.  There  may  be  a  profession  of  a  common  faith,  in 
which  the  national  heart  feels  little  or  no  interest,  where 
even  the  doctrines  of  Christianity  are  coldly  admitted,  more 
from  the  influence  of  tradition  or  early  education  than  from 
a  conviction  wrought  into  the  heart ;  such  a  belief  can  not 
be  regarded  as  an  element  of  strength,  for  the  national  soul 
can  not  be  roused  for  its  defense — it  can  kindle  no  enthu- 
siasm. But  when  a  great  people  are  controlled  by  a  relig- 
ious system  in  which  they  have  an  undoubting  faith,  and 
which  has  power  to  excite  and  maintain  a  spirit  of  worship 
in  the  popular  mind,  such  a  people  can  be  roused  to  the 
loftiest  efforts  of  which  man  is  capable,  either  for  aggressive 
war,  for  the  spread  of  a  national  faith,  or  in  defense  of  their 
altars  and  their  homes.  In  studying  the  characteristics  of 
Russia,  we  should  therefore  not  forget  to  inquire  concern- 
ing her  religious  faith,  and  the  warmth  and  strength  of  the 
religious  sentiment  among  the  millions  of  the  empire,  and 
whether  there  is  a  deep  national  feeling  of  belief  and  wor- 
ship that  can  be  roused  in  a  common  cause.  Finally,  all 
the  elements  of  national  power  may  lie  through  long  periods 
without  being  combined  for  any  lofty  purpose ;  or  a  nation, 


182         THE   ESSENTIAL   ELEMENTS   OF  NATIONAL   POWER. 

even  from  the  first,  may  seem  to  have  some  presentiment 
of  its  destiny,  and  works  on  through  centuries  perhaps, 
toward  a  distant  end,  dimly  perceived  even  by  itself,  until 
some  mighty  mind  arises  that  comprehends  the  capacities 
of  his  country,  and  institutes  at  once  the  proper  methods 
of  awakening  the  national  energies,  and  directs  them  to  a 
definite  end.  If  then,  upon  investigation,  we  discover  some 
or  all  of  these  elements  of  power  in  Russia,  it  will  then  be 
interesting  to  consider  whether  they  are  still  lying  like  rude 
materials  yet  unshapen  by  the  hand  of  the  artist,  or  whether 
we  find  in  the  Emperor  that  greatness  which  has  placed 
him  at  the  head  of  an  era  in  his  country's  history,  a  genius 
which  has  enabled  him  to  mark  out  for  his  nation  a  noble 
career,  to  conceive  a  great  scheme  bearing  a  true  relation 
to  the  capabilities  of  his  empire,  and  then  direct  toward 
this  high  end  the  whole  power  of  his  people. 

With  these  thoughts  before  us,  let  us  proceed  to  the 
study  of  the  great  IsTorthern  Empire,  and  the  policy  and 
character  of  the  Czar.  This  character  and  policy  will  be 
exhibited  by  presenting  Russia  as  she  is ;  for  the  Russia  of 
to-day  has  been  modeHed  according  to  the  conception  of 
the  late  emperor,  a  conception  to  whose  grand  proportions 
the  empire  will  continue  to  shape  itself  in  its  future  expan- 
sion. iTicholas  formed  the  great  idea  of  a  Sclavonic  civil- 
ization, with  a  territory  for  its  theater  stretching  from  ocean 
to  ocean,  with  the  Greek  faith  and  worship  for  its  religious 
basis,  with  a  vast  commercial  and  manufacturing  system 
for  its  support,  and  expanding  not  so  much  by  conquest 
as  by  growth  from  a  central  life. 


QBOGKAPHICAL   CHARACTER  OF  RUSSIA.  183 


CHAPTER    XVII 


GEOGRAPHICAL  CHARACTER  OF  RUSSIA. 

In  accordance  with  the  suggestions  made  in  the  preced- 
ing chapter,  let  us  now  inquire  whether  Eussia  possesses  a 
territory  capable  of  sustaining  a  population  that  will  give 
her  a  controlling  influence  in  the  afltairs  of  Europe.  It  has 
been  usual  to  speak  of  this  empire  under  two  great  divi- 
sions, the  one  in  Europe  and  the  other  in  Asia,  but  we  shall 
obtain  a  clearer  idea  of  its  vast  dimensions  by  regarding  it 
as  one  great  whole.  In  fact,  there  is  no  great  natural  boun- 
dary to  separate  eastern  from  western  Eussia,  the  Ural 
mountains  being  little  more  than  a  long  tract  of  elevated 
land,  the  loftiest  portions  rising  only  to  the  height  of  four 
thousand  feet,  the  ascent  and  descent  being  so  gradual 
where  the  great  roads  pass  as  to  be  almost  imperceptible. 
We  may  then,  without  violence  to  any  geographical  feature, 
consider  the  Russian  territory  as  one  unbroken  whole. 
Viewed  thus,  it  stretches  from  the  Baltic  sea  on  the  west, 
across  the  entire  breadth  of  Europe  and  Asia  to  the  sea  of 
Okhotsk  and  to  Behring's  Straits,  looking  southward  upon 
the  entire  northern  frontier  of  Europe,  Turkey,  Tartary, 
and  the  Chinese  empire.     This  territory  contains  no  less 


184  GEOGRAPHICAL   CHABACTER  OF  RUSSIA. 

than  6,750,000  square  miles,  or  more  than  one-sixtli  part 
of  all  the  land  on  our  planet.  It  has  been  the  custom  of 
most  to  comprise  the  whole  description  of  this  immense 
possession  within  the  sweeping  remark  that  most  of  it  is 
an  inhospitable  region  of  deserts  and  snows,  incapable  of 
sustaining  human  life,  and  altogether  without  any  import- 
ant resources  which  can  contribute  to  the  growth  of  a 
nation.  The  almost  unequalled  progress  of  the  empire 
within  the  last  century  is  quite  sufficient  to  expose  the  ab- 
surdity of  such  views,  and  yet  in  the  one  of  latest  American 
work  upon  Eussia  is  found  the  following  :  After  speaking 
of  the  great  extent  of  the  Russian  dominions,  and  stating 
that  her  territory  is  equal  to  two  Europes,  or  the  whole  of 
l^orth  America,  the  author  adds,  "  But  by  far  the  greatest 
"proportion  of  this  prodigious  superfices  is  almost  unin- 
"  habited,  and  seems  to  be  destined  to  perpetual  sterility ; 
"  a  consequence  partly  of  the  extreme  rigor  of  the  climate, 
"in  the  provinces  contiguous  to  the  Arctic  ocean,  and 
"  partly  of  almost  all  the  great  rivers  by  which  they  are 
"traversed  having  their  embouchure  on  that  ocean,  and 
"  being  therefore  inaccessible  for  either  the  whole  or  the 
"  greater  part  of  the  year." 

What  could  the  uninformed  reader  infer  from  this  descrip- 
tion but  that  "by/ar  the  greatest  proportion''  of  all  Russia 
lies  along  the  shores  of  the  frozen  ocean,  and  is  therefore 
condemned  to  a  "  perpetual  sterility  ?"  But  how  does  this 
idea  accord  with  the  fact  that  Russia,  being  somewhat  less 
in  extent  than  the  North  American  continent,  has  already 
a  population  nearly  double  that  of  North  America,  and  is 
surpassed  by  the  United  States  alone  in  the  rapidity  of  her 
progress. 

Again  the  same  author  remarks,  "  The  most  distinguish- 
"  ing  feature  of  Russia  is  her  vasts  forests.  Schnitzler,  who 
"  estimates  the  surface  of  European  Russia  at  about  four 
"hundred  millions  of  deciatims  (2  7-10  acres),  supposes 
"  that  one  hundred  and  fifty-six  millions  are  occupied  by 
"  forests.  They  are  so  very  prevalent  in  the  governments 
"  of  Novgorod  and  Tver,  between  Petersburg  and  Moscow, 


GEOGRAPHICAL   CHARACTER  OF  RUSSIA.  185 

"  that  it  has  been  said  a  squirrel  might  travel  from  the  one 
"city  to  the  other  without  ever  touching  the  ground.  In 
"the  government  of  Perm,  on  both  sides  of  the  Ural 
"  mountains,  containing  eighteen  millions  of  deciatims,  no 
"  fewer  than  seventeen  millions  are  covered  by  forests !  The 
"  forests  of  Asiatic  Russia  are  also  of  vast  size."  These 
may  be  facts,  but  facts  thus  presented  without  explanation, 
and  in  connection  with  the  statements  which  have  been 
mentioned  concerning  the  sterile  character  of  "  by  far  the 
greatest  proportion"  of  Russia,  serve  only  to  lead  the  mind 
of  the  inquirer  astray.  I^o  long  period  has  passed  since 
the  most  "  distinguishing  feature"  of  !N"orth  America,  par- 
ticularly of  the  United  States,  was  the  almost  unbroken 
forest,  and  it  was  scarcely  impossible  one  hundred  years 
ago  for  a  squirrel  to  have  passed  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Mississippi  through  one  continuous  wood ;  and  yet  on  the 
very  site  of  the  old  forest  now  stand  our  populous  States, 
which  indeed  could  not  have  sprung  up  with  such  mar- 
vellous growth  had  the  forests  been  absent.  These  very 
forests  constitute  a  most  important  portion  of  the  wealth 
of  Russia ;  they  form  a  solid  basis  for  her  future  progress, 
and  an  element  of  growth  with  which  she  could  by  no 
means  safely  dispense — as  will  be  shown  hereafter. 

A  fair  comparison  of  the  capabilities  of  the  Russian  Em- 
pire, so  far  as  population  is  concerned,  might  be  presented, 
could  we  make  even  an  approximate  estimate  of  the  extent 
of  territory  within  her  limits,  equal  in  productiveness  to 
other  portions  of  Europe,  and  then  calculate  what  the  num- 
ber of  her  people  would  be  if  these  lands  were  as  densely 
settled  as  Europe  now  is.  Sir  Archibald  Allison  has  at- 
tempted such  a  calculation,  in  which,  as  a  basis,  he  rejects 
two-thirds  of  Asiatic  Russia  as  sterile  and  unproductive. 
Having  done  this,  he  then  proceeds  to  show  that  if  Russia 
in  Europe  were  peopled  as  Germany  now  is,  it  would  con- 
tain 150,000,000  souls ;  if  as  dense  as  Great  Britain,  the 
number  would  be  311,000,000.  He  then  adds,  if  that  por- 
tion of  Asiatic  Russia  which  is  capable  of  cultivation  were 
peopled  even  as  Scotland  is,  it  would  sustain  200,000,000 


186  GEOGRAPHICAL   CHARACTER  OF   RUSSIA. 

inhabitants ;  if  as  densely  as  the  British  Islands  together, 
more  than  500,000,000  people.  If,  then,  the  agricultural 
portion  of  Russia  were  populated  only  as  Germany  and 
Scotland  now  are,  her  numbers  would  be  350,000,000; 
if  as  densely  as  Great  Britain,  the  population  would  be 
more  than  800,000,000.  This  seems  at  first  glance  mere 
empty  speculation.  But  let  us  consider  that  this  would  be 
the  number  of  the  multitudes  of  Russia,  when  she  has  only 
as  many  inhabitants  to  the  square  mile  as  Great  Britain 
now  has,  and  reckoning  only  the  productive  portion  of  her 
territory.  The  point  to  be  observed  here  is,  that  with  an 
equal  number  of  inhabitants  on  the  square  mile,  the  popu- 
lation of  Great  Britain  would  be  some  28,000,000,  and  that 
of  Russia  800,000,000,  and  this  without  taking  into  account 
the  sterile  lands  of  the  latter  countrj^.  This,  therefore, 
affords  a  fair  comparison  of  the  capacities  of  the  two  king- 
doms, looking  at  this  single  point  alone.  ITor  can  it  be 
said  that  it  is  impossible  that  the  agricultural  portions  of 
Russia  will  ever  support  as  many  inhabitants  on  the  square 
mile  as  are  found  in  Great  Britain  now,  for  out  of  about 
57,000,000  acres  in  the  British  Islands,  22,000,000  are  waste 
lands.  Besides,  even  the  present  ratio  of  increase  in  Russia 
will  give  her  in  the  year  1900,  130,000,000  people ;  in  1950, 
the  number  will  be  260,000,000 ;  and  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  hence,  with  simply  her  present  rate  of  progress,  her 
population  will  be  520,000,000,  and  we  have  seen  that  her 
territory  is  abundantly  sufficient  to  support  even  this  enor- 
mous multitude — ^that  even  then  she  will  not  be  overstocked 
with  people,  for  the  estimate  is  based  upon  her  agricultural 
and  productive  lands  alone,  and  facts  would  seem  to  indi- 
cate that  this  portion  of  her  country  is  much  larger  in  pro- 
portion to  the  whole  than  has  been  hitherto  supposed. 
Indeed,  in  almost  all  our  publications  upon  this  subject, 
from  the  elementary  books  and  geographies  of  our  schools 
to  the  scientific  lecture,  we  find  only  those  sweeping  gener- 
alities which  are  usually  employed  in  the  absence  of  definite 
ideas  and  accurate  information. 

It  will  be  conceded  by  all  that  the  territorial  possessions 


GEOGRAPHICAL   CHARACTER   OP   RUSSIA.  187 

of  Russia  are  sufficiently  extensive  to  form  the  basis  of  an 
empire  more  powerful  than  any  now  on  the  globe — superior 
even  to  any  nation  of  the  past.  But  then  we  are  at  once 
reminded  that  most  of  this  vast  dominion  lying  under  the 
frozen  sky  of  the  north  is  unfit  for  the  habitation  of  man, 
and  is  doomed  to  eternal  rigor  and  sterility.  If  this  is  in- 
deed so,  then  western  Europe  has  little  to  apprehend  from 
the  future  growth  of  this  northern  Power,  and  the  world  at 
large  little  to  hope  from  the  civilization  of  the  Sclavonic 
races.  But  it  is  better  to  study  this  subject  in  the  light  of 
admitted  facts  than  to  be  guided  by  theories  hastily  con- 
structed, and  which,  like  false  quotations  from  some  ancient 
author,  pass  current  for  generations,  sometimes  without  ex- 
amination, and,  consequently,  without  dispute.  A  few  well 
established  facts  relating  to  position,  climate,  and  produc- 
tions, will  enable  us  to  form  an  accurate  opinion  upon  the 
single  point  of  the  capacity  of  the  Russian  territory  to 
sustain  a  dense  population. 

By  far  the  largest  proportion  of  the  Russian  Empire, 
whether  in  Europe  or  Asia,  lies  within  the  temperate  zone, 
and  this  alone  would  furnish  strong  presumptive  evidence, 
if  not  positive  proof,  that  a  small  portion  only  of  its  lands 
are  necessarily  uninhabitable  or  barren,  on  account  of  the 
severity  of  the  climate.  Between  the  parallels  of  latitude 
that  enclose  entire  Europe,  Russia  has  a  territory  equal  in 
extent  to  all  the  other  European  States,  and  from  its  south- 
ern limit,  between  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Caspian,  it 
stretches  northward  through  about  eighteen  degrees  of  lati- 
tude, before  it  reaches  the  northern  extremity  of  Great 
Britain,  a  distance  equal  to  that  from  New  Orleans  to  the 
center  of  Lake  Superior — or  in  general  terms,  equal  to  the 
breadth  of  our  country,  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  British 
America. 

This  fact  alone  is  quite  sufficient  to  show  that,  so  far  as 
territory  and  climate  are  concerned,  she  possess  the  elements 
of  national  greatness  almost  immeasureably  beyond  any 
other  single  Power  of  Europe — ^holding  a  territory  nearly 
equal  to  them  all,  which  lies  in  the  same  latitude  as  their 


188  GEOGRAPHICAL   CHARACTER   OF   RUSSIA. 

own,  beside  her  more  northern  districts,  and  her  immense 
possessions  in  Asia.  The  character  of  that  portion  of  Russia 
in  Europe  which  lies  north  of  the  latitude  of  Great  Britain, 
and  also  that  of  her  Asiatic  dominions,  may  be  understood 
by  Americans,  if  compared  with  our  own  country.  In  this 
comparison,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  climate  of 
Europe  is  milder  than  in  the  corresponding  latitudes  in 
America.  The  opening  of  the  spring,  the  time  of  the 
autumnal  frosts,  and  the  beginning  of  winter,  will  furnish 
proper  points  for  such  a  comparison.  It  would  probably  be 
very  near  the  truth,  if  the  average  time  for  the  opening  of 
the  navigation  of  the  Hudson  is  fixed  at  or  near  the  1st  of 
April.  The  ice  in  the  Penobscot,  as  was  stated,  began  to 
move  this  season  (1855)  on  the  14th  of  April.  At  St.  Paul, 
Minnesota,  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  opens  from 
the  1st  to  the  middle  of  April,  and  up  to  this  time,  also, 
the  ice  usually  remains  in  the  harbors  of  our  western  lakes. 
The  period  for  the  closing  of  these  rivers  and  lakes,  in  the 
autumn,  is  from  the  middle  of  E'ovember  to  the  first  of 
December — the  Hudson  alone  excepted,  which  often  re- 
mains open  until  the  last  days  of  December.  Throughout 
the  Northern  States,  the  time  for  planting  Indian  corn  is 
between  the  first  and  12th  of  May,  and  it  reaches  maturity, 
with  a  profitable  yield,  in  regions  so  far  north  that  the 
planting  is  delayed  until  June,  while  there,  also,  rye,  oats, 
flax,  barley,  potatoes  and  other  roots,  as  well  as  a  great 
variety  of  fruits,  grow  in  perfection.  I^ow  when  it  is  con- 
sidered that  the  most  flourishing  portion  of  our  country  is 
that  where  the  commencement  of  spring  ranges  from  the 
middle  of  April  to  the  middle  of  May,  and  where  the 
autumnal  frosts  begin  about  the  1st  of  October,  it  is  surely 
a  somewhat  hasty  conclusion  that  a  country  of  Europe, 
possessing  a  similar  climate,  must  be  regarded  as  doomed 
to  perpetual  sterility,  as  a  mere  frozen  waste.  The  ice  on 
the  IS'eva,  at  St.  Petersburgh,  is  usually  broken  up  about 
the  18th  of  April,  while  it  again  becomes  stationary  about 
the  1st  of  December.  Vegetation  commences  by  the  1st 
of  May,  and  proceeds  with  a  rapidity  that  outstrips  the 


GEOGRAPHICAL   CHARACTER  OF  RUSSIA.  189 

growth  of  more  southern  climes,  and  fully  compensates  for 
the  later  opening  of  spring.  By  an  examination  of  the 
reports  of  various  travelers,  but  especially  the  descriptions 
of  the  accurate  and  scientific  German  tourist,  Erman,  we 
learn  that  if  we  travel  eastward  from  St.  Petershurgh, 
through  Russia  in  Europe,  and  Siberia,  to  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
we  shall  find  that  through  all  these  immense  regions,  to 
within  a  short  distance  of  the  arctic  circle,  the  climate  cor- 
responds in  general  with  that  of  the  northern  portions  of 
the  United  States,  and  the  British  American  provinces ; 
that  the  commencement  of  winter  and  the  beginning  of 
spring,  and  the  range  of  the  thermometer,  are  nearly  the 
same  on  both  the  eastern  and  western  continents.  It  would 
therefore  be  wrong  to  conclude  that  any  portion  of  Pussia, 
either  in  Europe  or  Asia,  south  of  sixty-two  degrees  north 
latitude,  may  not  support  a  dense  population,  when  we  have 
before  our  eyes  ]!Tew  England,  northern  New  York,  "Wis- 
consin, Minnesota,  and  Canada,  with  a  climate  essentially 
the  same,  yet  evidently  possessing  all  the  elements  of  rapid 
growth  and  national  greatness.  In  regard  to  the  produc- 
tiveness of  the  soil  of  Russia,  our  conclusions  rest  partly 
upon  conceded  facts,  and  partly  upon  inferences.  Little 
need  be  said  concerning  the  whole  vast  territory  which  lies 
opposite  to  the  main  portions  of  western  Europe,  embrac- 
ing eighteen  degrees  of  latitude,  for  although  much  has  been 
said  of  the  inhospitable  and  even  uninhabitable  steppes  of 
the  southern  portion  of  this  region,  Americans  have  learned 
that  a  prairie  land  is  capable  of  supporting  an  exceedingly 
dense  population,  and  the  "  detestable  black  dusf  mentioned 
by  travelers  in  the  Russian  prairies,  indicates,  in  a  manner 
not  to  be  mistaken,  the  fertile  character  of  the  soil.  This 
region,  then,  lying  side  by  side  with  western  Europe,  and 
almost  equal  in  extent  to  that  part  of  the  United  States 
which  lies  between  the  Atlantic  and  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
may,  perhaps,  be  considered  as  equal  in  productiveness  to 
the  remainder  of  Europe.  We  have  then  to  consider,  in 
addition,  the  more  northern  portions  of  Russia,  both  in 
Europe  and  Asia.    Here  the  winters  are  severe,  and  the 


190  GEOGRAPHICAL   CHARACTER  OF  RUSSIA. 

summers  are  short;  and,  although  the  capabilities  of  the 
soil  have  scarcely  been  tested  at  all,  it  is  probable  that  cul- 
tivation must  cease  at  a  point  about  one  hundred  miles 
south  of  the  arctic  circle.  This  opinion  is  founded  chiefly 
upon  the  observations  of  Erman,  who  found  that  the  grains 
of  Europe  had  been  brought  to  perfection  within  about 
this  distance  of  the  frigid  zone,  and  even  in  places  where 
the  ground  is  perpetually  frozen,  a  few  feet  below  the  sur- 
face. These  northern  regions,  moreover,  abound  in  immense 
forests,  particularly  of  pine,  and  soil  which  is  capable  of 
supporting  the  growth  of  large  forest  trees  will,  by  suitable 
culture,  produce  food  for  man.  These  forests  form  no  in- 
considerable portion  of  the  wealth  of  Russia,  and  will 
materially  contribute  to  her  future  growth ;  and  the  truth 
of  this  will  readily  appear  when  we  remember  that  the 
snows  of  the  winter,  and  the  countless  streams  in  the  sum- 
mer, furnish  precisely  the  means  of  transport  for  lumber, 
which  has  been  found  so  efficacious  in  America. 

Some  idea  may  be  formed  of  the  value  of  the  forests  of 
Russia,  from  the  following  statements  which  are  found  in 
Allison's  History  of  Europe :  "  The  cold  and  shivering 
"  plains  which  stretch  toward  Archangel  and  the  shores 
"  of  the  White  Sea,  are  covered  with  immense  forests  of 
"  oak  and  fir,  furnishing  at  once  inexhaustible  materials 
"  for  ship-building,  and  supplies  of  fuel,  which  for  many 
"  generations  will  supercede  the  necessity  of  searching  in 
"  the  bowels  of  the  earth  for  the  purposes  of  warmth  or 
"manufacture,  for  the  inhabitants  of  the  empire."  He 
then  quotes  the  following  from  "  Trans  de  V Academic 
"  Imperiale,  de  St  Petersburgh ;  Malte  Brun  and  Bremner's 
'<  Russia": 

"  The  extent  of  the  forests  in  the  northern  provinces  of 
Russia  is  almost  inconceivable.  From  actual  measurement 
it  appears  that  in  the  three  governments  of  Vologda,  Arch- 
angel, and  Olonitz  alone,  there  are  216,000,000  acres  of 
pine  and  fir,  being  about  three  times  the  whole  surface  of 
the  British  Islands,  which  contains  77,000,000.  In  one 
government  alone  there  are   47,000,000  acres  of  forest. 


GEOGRAPHICAL  CHARACTER  OF  RUSSIA.  191 

It  appears  from  M.  Herman's  calculations,  that  there  are 
in  thirty-one  governments  in  the  north  of  Eussia,  8,195,295 
firs  well  adapted  to  large  masts,  each  being  above  thirty 
inches  in  diameter — a  number  more  than  sufficient  for  a 
long  supply  of  all  the  fleets  in  the  world,  besides  86,869,000 
fit  for  building  houses.  In  twenty -two  governments  only, 
there  are  374,804  large  oaks,  each  more  than  twenty-six 
inches  in  diameter,  and  229,570,000  of  a  smaller  size."  A 
country  thus  supplied  with  such  magnificent  forests  of  tim- 
ber, for  ship-building,  the  construction  of  dwellings,  and 
all  the  purposes  of  the  arts,  and  so  abundantly  furnished 
with  the  means  of  transport  by  her  net-work  of  rivers, 
may  not  be  carelessly  described  as  a  mere  frozen,  barren 
waste ;  for  these  forests  when  they  disappear,  as  the  popu- 
lation increases,  and  civilization  advances,  will  be  succeeded 
by  grain  fields,  and  orchards,  and  prosperous  communities, 
in  the  same  manner  in  which  we  have  seen  the  change 
wrought  on  American  soil.  It  is  doubtless  true,  that  there 
is  much  waste  land  even  within  the  limits  of  what  has  been 
designated  as  the  agricultural  district  of  the  Russian  Em- 
pire, and  the  northern  portions  of  her  territory,  even  within 
the  temperate  zone,  can  not  be  considered  productive  when 
compared  with  the  Danubian  provinces,  or  with  the  valley 
of  the  Mississippi ;  but  then  it  should  be  remembered  what 
large  tracts  of  land  are  found  unfit  for  cultivation  in  every 
country.  How  large  a  portion  of  the  whole  surface,  for 
instance,  in  "New  England,  is  occupied  by  mountains  and 
rugged  hills  that  the  plow  can  not  visit;  yet  these  very 
mountains,  covered  with  forests,  sparkling  with  streams, 
and  filled  with  mineral  wealth,  afibrd  the  means  of  sup- 
porting an  exceedingly  dense  population.  The  capabilities 
of  Eussia  have  evidently  been  too  hastily  judged;  her 
rapid  growth,  unequalled  except  by  our  own,  would  indi- 
cate that  no  unusual  proportion  of  her  territory  is  waste 
and  sterile,  and  there  are  many  proofs  that  the  Eussians 
are  subduing  a  continent,  expanding  themselves  on  every 
side,  and  redeeming  the  wilderness,  after  the  manner  of  the 
Americans  here. 


192  THE  RELATIVE  POSITION  OP  RUSSIA. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 


THE  BELATIVE  POSITION  OF  RUSSIA. 

Whatever  may  be  the  extent  of  a  nation's  territory,  or 
the  productiveness  of  its  soil,  it  can  have  no  extended 
growth,  or  permanent  greatness  based  on  its  own  inde- 
pendent resources,  if  it  is  either  hemmed  in  by  other  pow- 
erful nations,  or  excluded  from  adequate  communication 
with  the  ocean.  A  nation  thus  situated  can  become  great 
only  by  conquest  or  peaceful  acquisition,  thus  securing- to 
itself  advantages  which  did  not  belong  to  its  original 
domain.  Russia  has  thus  extended  herself  with  astonishing 
rapidity ;  but  this  enlargement  of  her  dominion  has  been 
not  so  much  by  overrunning  contiguous  countries  as  by  the 
expansion  of  an  internal  life,  which  has  sought  space  wherein 
to  grow ;  and  it  is  her  present  position,  and  what  seems  to 
be  her  immediate  and  inevitable  future,  that  is  presented 
for  consideration  here.  Perhaps  Americans  may  perceive 
in  the  picture  enough  of  resemblance  to  our  own  position 
to  awaken  in  them  a  new  interest  in  regard  to  this  Euro- 
pean  America,  and  to  inquire  whether  two  great  nations 
now  facing  each  other  on  the  opposite  shores  of  the  Pacific, 
are  not  hereafter  to  be  brought  into  more  intimate  asso- 
ciation. 


THE  RELATIVE   POSITION  OP   RUSSIA.  193 

Like  America  Russia  reaches  from  ocean  to  ocean,  stretch- 
ing across  the  whole  breadth  of  Europe  and  Asia,  and 
resting  one  wing  on  the  Pacific  and  the  other  upon  the 
Atlantic.  She  is  thus  placed,  at  either  extremity  of  her 
empire,  in  communication  with  the  commerce  of  the  world. 
Through  the  Baltic  she  connects  herself  with  Europe,  and 
with  the  trade  of  the  eastern  coast  of  America,  and  east- 
ward on  the  Pacific,  there  is  opened  to  her  the  commerce 
of  China,  the  East  Indian  Archipelago,  and  the  Pacific  slope 
of  the  American  continent.  From  these  two  extremities  the 
trade  of  the  world  may  be  drawn  inward  toward  the  heart 
of  the  empire.  One  acquisition  has  lately  been  made  by 
Russia  in  the  East,  which  will  change  the  whole  aspect  of 
her  eastern  commerce,  and  will  prove  of  the  very  highest 
importance  in  connection  with  the  progress  of  our  own 
population  on  the  Pacific  coast.  This  point  will  be  made 
clear  by  the  following  quotation  from  Alison,  and  by  the 
inspection  of  a  good  map  :  "  The  river  Amoor,  which  fiows 
"  from  the  mountains  of  Mongolia  into  the  ocean  of  Japan,, 
"by  a  course  twelve  hundred  miles  in  length,  of  which  nine 
"hundred  are  navigable,  in  a  deep  channel,  shut  in  on> 
"  either  side  by  precipitous  rocks,  or  shaded  by  noble  forests, 
"  is  the  real  outlet  of  eastern  Siberia  ;  and  though  the  Chi- 
"  nese  are  still  masters  of  this  splendid  stream,  it  is  as  in- 
"  dispensible  to  Asiatic  as  the  Volga  is  to  European  Russia, 
"and  ere  long  it  must  fall  under  the  dominion  of  the 
"  Czar,  and  constitute  the  principal  outlet  of  his  immense 
•'  oriental  provinces."  Mr.  Alison  has  underrated  the  size 
of  the  Amoor.  It  is  twenty-two  hundred  miles  in  length, 
and  navigable  through  a  large  portion  of  its  whole  extent. 
The  upper  portion  of  this  stream  lies  within  the  Emperor's 
dominions,  in  the  province  of  Irkoutsk,  and  with  the  Chi- 
nese in  possession  of  its  mouth,  eastern  Siberia  is  in  a  con- 
dition somewhat  similar  to  that  of  the  upper  Mississippi 
valley  before  the  Louisiana  purchase.  Russia  has  lately 
obtained  the  control  of  the  valley  of  ihe  Amoor  to  its 
mouth,  and  it  will  at  once  become  the  channel  of  an  ex- 
tensive commerce,  not  with  the  East  alone^  but  with  the 
13 


194  THE   RELATIVE   POSITION  OF  RUSSIA. 

Pacific  slope  of  America.  Siberia  is  traversed  from  north 
to  south  by  large  navigable  rivers,  which  empty,  however, 
into  the  Arctic  ocean ;  but  so  soon  as  the  trade  of  these 
streams  is  carried  on  by  steam  vessels,  changes  will  take 
place,  such  as  have  occurred  on  our  western  rivers,  and 
these  channels,  united,  as  ultimately  they  will  be,  by  rail- 
ways pointing  eastward  and  toward  the  valley  of  the  Amoor, 
will  pour  into  the  sea  of  Japan,  the  mineral  and  other  pro- 
ductions of  southern  and  central  Siberia,  and  the  northern 
provinces  of  China,  and  bear  back  from  other  lands  the 
means  of  comfort  and  civilization  to  the  heart  of  northern 
Asia.  On  the  shores  of  California  and  Oregon,  and  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Amoor,  and  in  the  harbors  of  the  sea  of  Ja- 
pan, Russians  and  Americans  will  meet  for  the  exchanges 
of  a  mutual  commerce,  remote  from  the  rest  of  Europe. 

We  shall  scarcely  overestimate  the  importance  of  the 
trade  which,  at  no  remote  period,  will  flow  to  and  from 
southern  Siberia,  and  the  adjacent  provinces  lately  added 
to  the  Eussian  territory,  if  we  may  credit  a  distingushed 
English  writer,  who  declares  that  the  immense  plains 
"which  stretch  to  the  eastward  along  the  banks  of  the 
"Amoor,  are  capable  of  containing  all  the  nations  of 
"  Christendom  in  comfort  and  affluence."  Again,  by  her 
possessions  upon  the  Black  Sea,  she  is  placed  in  direct 
communication  with  the  commerce  of  the  Mediterranean, 
and  through  the  Mediterranean  she  has  a  third  chan- 
nel connecting  her  with  the  general  trade  of  the  world. 
In  this  calculation,  no  notice  is  taken  of  her  long  line  of 
sea  coast  on  the  Arctic  Ocean.  In  those  frozen  regions  it 
possesses  less  commercial  importance.  A  country  so  vast 
as  Eussia  could  scarcely  touch  the  sea  more  advantageously 
than  she  does,  resting  in  the  east  on  the  Pacific,  lying  in 
the  west  along  the  Atlantic,  for  the  Baltic  and  the  Gulf  of 
Finland  are  to  her  as  to  the  Atlantic  sea  coast,  while  along 
the  southern  frontier  of  her  European  territory  stretches 
the  Black  Sea.  It  is  apparent  that  nothing  more  is  want- 
ing but  the  possession  of  Constantinople  and  the  control  of 
the  Dardanelles,  to  complete  a  territorial  outline  of  the 


THE   BELATIVE   POSITION   OF  KUSSIA.  195 

most  imposing  character  that  earth  has  ever  seen  in  the 
possession  of  a  single  Power,  and  to  which  earth  can  afford 
no  parallel,  except  in  I^orth  America.  He  who  studies 
aright  the  position,  resources,  and  progress  of  Russia,  will 
see  at  once  that  the  possession  of  Constantinople  is  merely 
a  question  of  time.  The  idea  that  the  Powers  of  western 
Europe  are  able  to  check  permanently  the  advance  of  Russia 
will  not  long  he  seriously  entertained.  The  life  of  the 
Northern  Empire  lies  beyond  their  reach,  and  she  needs 
but  to  permit  them  to  exhaust  themselves  upon  her  frontier 
positions,  and  quietly  wait  until  they  are  forced  backward 
by  the  resistless  power  of  her  growth.  She  is  under  no 
present  necessity  of  possessing  Constantinople ;  she  requires 
only  the  power  to  control  its  owner,  and  shape  for  them  a 
policy  in  accordance  with  her  own,  and  the  most  splendid 
dreams  of  Muscovite  greatness  may  then  be  realized,  even 
while  the  Golden  Horn  remains  in  the  possession  of  the 
Sultan. 

It  may  not  be  uninteresting  to  the  American  reader  to 
pause  a  moment  here,  in  order  to  bestow  a  passing  glance 
upon  the  general  resemblance  between  the  geographical 
position  of  Russia  and  l^orth  America,  as  well  as  a  relation- 
ship of  position — ^indicating,  as  it  would  seem,  a  closer  con- 
nection between  the  two  nations  in  their  future  career. 

The  comparison  is  instituted  between  Russia  and  IN'orth 
America  because  nothing  in  the  future  is  more  certain  than 
that  the  Forth  American  continent,  with  its  adjacent  seas 
and  islands,  will  be  controlled  by  a  single  government.  If 
the  American  Union  continues,  such  a  result  will  be  reached 
by  the  inevitable  law  of  national  development.  Russia  and 
IsTorth  America  then  are  nearly  equal  in  the  extent  of  their 
possessions,  and  each  is  capable  of  supporting  a  population 
of  a  thousand  millions,  without  overburthening  its  territory 
or  exhausting  its  resources.  They  both  stretch  from  ocean 
to  ocean,  each  resting  one  broad  wing  upon  the  Atlantic 
and  the  other  upon  the  Pacific ;  and  together,  the  arms  of 
their  wide  dominion  reach  round  the  globe.  They  face 
each  other  from  the  opposite  shores  of  the  Atlantic,  for,  as 


196  GEOGRAPHICAL   CHARACTER  OF   RUSSIA. 

has  been  said,  the  Baltic  and  the  Gulf  of  Finland  form  for 
Russia  an  Atlantic  sea-coast.  Again,  the  two  nations  lie 
fronting  each  other  on  the  shores  of  the  ^orth  Pacific — 
suggesting  a  future  influence  over  the  East  Indian  Archi- 
pelago, scarcely  anticipated  now :  a  control  of  the  com- 
merce of  the  East,  which  our  Government  is  preparing  for 
by  her  negotiations  with  Japan,  and  of  which  E-ussia  is  not 
unmindful,  as  was  evident  from  the  watchful  presence  of 
her  fleet  while  our  squadron  was  at  Yeddo,  and  by  her  ad- 
vancing to  the  valley  of  the  Amoor.  The  eastern  provinces 
of  Russia  on  the  Pacific,  and  the  western  territories  of  the 
United  States  on  the  same  ocean,  can  furnish  unlimited 
resources,  either  for  a  navy  or  a  commercial  marine,  and 
therefore  the  trade  of  that  "Exhaustless  East"  may  yetfiow 
along  two  new  channels,  running  in  opposite  directions — 
one  eastward,  through  the  heart  of  IS^orth  America,  and 
the  other  westward,  through  the  dominions  of  Russia. 
Such  a  change  in  the  world's  commerce  is  surely  not  alto- 
gether improbable;  indeed  the  course  of  events  already 
indicates  such  a  result,  and  it  requires  no  argument  to 
demonstrate  that,  if  it  occurs,  the  Powers  of  western  Europe 
will  sink  at  once  to  a  secondary  position,  and  yield  up  for- 
ever the  control  of  the  world.  Such  a  view  suggests  the 
intimate  relations  which  may  hereafter  be  established  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  Russia ;  and  the  growing  sym- 
pathy between  the  two  nations  may,  perhaps,  be  regarded 
as  a  foreshadowing  of  the  future.  Again,  these  two  countries 
resemble  each  other  in  their  capacity  for  self-development 
and  independent  support.  They  both  enjoy  every  variety 
of  soil,  climate,  and  production  that  can  be  found  north  of 
the  southern  limit  of  the  temperate  zone,  and  therefore, 
though  they  were  shut  out  from  all  the  world  beside,  each 
could  still  maintain  a  vigorous  natural  growth  from  their 
own  domestic  resources.  Indeed,  if  it  were  possible  for 
the  Powers  of  Europe  completely  to  blockade  every  sea- 
port of  Russia  and  America  for  the  next  fifty  years,  they 
would  find,  in  the  end,  that  so  far  from  crushing  the  power 
of  either  nation,  they  had  only,  in  each,  nursed  to  maturity 


GEOGRAPHICAL   CHARACTER   OF  RUSSIA.  197 

a  compact  and  homogeneous  power,  self-balanced  on  its 
own  resources,  self-sustained  by  its  own  internal  life,  irre- 
sistible through  its  national  unity  and  individuality  of  char- 
acter. Each  of  these  countries  is  capable  of  becoming  a 
world  within  itself,  independent  of  and  even  excluded  from 
the  rest  of  earth.  Yast  as  is  the  foreign  commerce  of  the 
United  States,  it  is  yet  small  when  compared  with  our 
domestic  trade,  and  the  complete  annihilation  of  our  trade 
with  foreign  nations  would  not  touch  the  sources  of  our 
national  life,  nor  even  permanently  retard  our  progress. 
Russia  and  America  are  the  only  two  Powers  of  earth  that 
might  become  great  nations  if  shut  out  from  the  rest  of  the 
world,  and  therefore  the  efforts  of  all  other  nations  can 
not  long  or  materially  obstruct  the  growth  of  either.  Both 
are  impregnable  on  their  own  soil,  and  both  may  securely 
develope  their  exhaustless  internal  resources,  without  the 
possibility  of  being  prevented  by  any.  The  two  countries 
also  present  some  points  of  general  resemblance  in  the 
natural  facilities  which  both  possess  for  internal  communi- 
cation, as  well  as  for  the  construction  of  artificial  channels 
for  travel  and  for  trade.  Russia  can  boast  of  no  such  mag- 
nificent chain  of  internal  seas  as  those  of  North  America, 
but  she  has  the  Caspian,  eight  hundred  miles  long,  on  the 
east — the  Black  Sea  along  the  central  portion  of  her  south- 
ern frontier  in  Europe — and  the  Baltic,  and  the  Gulf  of 
Finland,  affording  her  a  long  line  of  what  may  be  called 
inland  sea-coast,  in  the  northwest,  while  her  whole  terri- 
tory is  covered,  almost  equally  with  the  American  continent, 
by  a  net-work  of  navigable  rivers.  In  addition  to  these 
natural  avenues  of  commerce,  the  nature  of  the  country 
presents  almost  unrivalled  facilities  for  the  construction  of 
artificial  connections,  whether  canals  or  roads.  Russia  may 
be  regarded  as  one  vast  plain,  reaching  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Pacific,  and  intersected  by  few  mountain  ranges,  so 
that  no  obstacle  is  presented  to  the  establishment  of  rail- 
ways in  any  required  direction,  while  the  material  for  such 
structures  exists  in  abundance.  Both  in  the  United  States 
and  Russia,  therefore,  are  found  unlimited  resources  for  a 


198  GEOGRAPHICAL   CHARACTER  OF   RUSSIA. 

home  growth,  the  cultivation  of  an  individual  and  inde- 
pendent national  life.  In  the  external  features  and  relative 
geographical  position,  then,  of  these  two  great  nations,  we 
perceive  enough  of  general  resemblance  to  suggest  the  in- 
quiry whether  they  are  not  to  be  in  some  manner  more 
closely  associated  than  they  have  hitherto  been — whether, 
in  the  new  aspect  of  the  world's  affairs,  now  opening  around 
us,  they  are  not  to  act  in  concert,  and  possibly  in  united 
self-defense,  against  the  Powers  of  western  Europe.  Espe- 
cially may  we  suppose  that  this  might  occur  if  England 
and  France  should  assume,  as  they  now  seem  disposed  to 
do,  the  office  of  regulators  of  the  concerns  of  nations  in  both 
hemispheres,  which,  being  interpreted,  means  simply  that 
they  propose  to  combine  to  repress  the  progress  of  any 
Power  which,  even  in  its  legitimate  growth,  may  over- 
shadow their  own.  Russia  and  America  have  been  prepared, 
as  it  were,  in  the  wilderness,  away  from  the  great  theater 
of  European  affairs.  A  little  time  since  they  were  scarcely 
thought  of,  much  less  consulted,  in  the  movements  of 
nations ;  they  have  risen  together  to  the  position  of  great 
Powers  on  earth,  and  henceforth  they  can  scarcely  re- 
main indifferent  to  each  other's  condition  and  policy.  Un- 
accountable as  it  may  appear,  considering  the  different 
character  of  their  political  institutions,  it  is  doubtless  true 
that  Russia  regards  America  with  more  friendly  feelings 
than  she  does  any  nation  of  Europe,  and  indications  are 
not  wanting  that  republican  America  will  ere  long  strongly 
reciprocate  this  friendship  of  an  absolute  monarchy.  It  is 
believed  to  be  quite  impossible  to  estimate  correctly,  from 
any  descriptions  which  have  been  given,  the  actual  extent 
of  internal  navigation  supplied  by  the  rivers  and  lakes  of^ 
Russia.  The  country  has,  as  yet,  to  a  great  extent,  been 
but  imperfectly  explored,  unless  by  the  government  itself. 
Foreigners  are  acquainted  only  with  the  larger  streams  of 
the  empire,  and  thousands  of  miles  of  river  navigation  may 
probably  exist,  altogether  unknown  to  any  who  have  visited 
Russia.  The  main  streams  which  flow  into  the  Baltic, 
those  which  empty  into  the  Black  Sea,  and  the  Caspian, 


GEOGRAPHICAL   CHARACTER  OF   RUSSIA.  19S 

and  the  great  rivers  of  Siberia,  have  been  described  in  gen- 
eral terms,  and  we  are  informed  that  they  are  navigable  to 
certain  points.  These  descriptions  have  been  given  mostly 
by  those  who  know  little  of  river  navigation  as  practised 
in  America.  Those  who  are  accustomed  to  see  American 
steamboats  ©n  our  western  rivers,  carrying  on  a  profitable 
traffic,  with  a  depth  of  water  from  fifteen  inches  to  eighteen 
inches  only,  will  readily  understand,  from  a  map,  that  the 
Eussian  territory  will  yet  be  traversed,  in  all  directions,  by 
steamboats  of  light  draught,  such  as  now  enliven  the  rivers 
of  the  west,  and  that  such  capacities  for  domestic  traffic, 
and  for  reaching  the  seaboard,  are  ample  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  country's  resources.  A  single  statement,  furn- 
ished by  Ehrman  throws,  much  light  upon  this  interesting 
subject. 

This  author,  in  describing  the  mines  of  the  Ural  moun- 
tains, and  the  amount  of  iron  annually  produced,  states  the 
line  of  river  navigation  from  the  mining  region  to  St. 
Petersburg,  to  be  3,350  miles.  He  also  mentions  that  from 
the  upper  Yolga,  from  4000  to  6000  barges  descend  annu- 
ally to  St.  Petersburg,  by  a  canal  connecting  with  the  'Neva ; 
and  when  we  consider  that  iron  from  the  Ural,  destined  to 
European  Russia,  requires  about  1000  boats  annually,  car- 
rying each  nearly  one  hundred  tons  at  the  commencement 
of  the  voyage,  the  cargo  being  increased  at  a  certain  point 
below,  we  may  form  an  idea  of  the  amount  of  the  present 
internal  commerce  of  Eussia.  Nor  must  we  forget  that 
this  trade  is  yet  almost  entirely  carried  on  in  such  rude 
boats  as  a  few  years  since  floated  on  the  Mississippi  and 
Ohio,  and  it  is  not  therefore  too  much  to  anticipate  that  in 
the  future  progress  of  Eussia,  and  in  a  period  not  remote, 
such  a  change  may  be  wrought  by  the  introduction  of  steam 
vessels  upon  her  rivers,  as  we  have  already  seen  from  this 
cause  in  the  Mississippi  valley.  She  has  begun,  and  com- 
pleted to  Moscow,  one  of  her  great  trunk  lines  of  railway 
intended  to  concentrate  upon  her  capital,  and  it  is  in  pro- 
gress and  nearly  finished  to  Odessa.  Let  but  this  be  car- 
ried from  Moscow,  eastward  to  the  valley  of  the  Amoor,  an 


200  THE   RELATIVE   POSITION  OP  RUSSIA. 

enterprise  only  equal  to  our  own  Pacific  Eaihvay,  and  then 
a  trunk  line  will  connect  Moscow  with  the  East  Indian 
seas,  and  from  Moscow  one  branch  will  pass  westward  to 
St.  Petersburg,  and  the  other  southward  toward  Constanti- 
nople, striking  the  Black  Sea  at  Odessa.  These  lines  would 
cross  the  whole  system  of  the  navigable  rivers  of  the  empire, 
and  would  be  to  Russian  commerce,  both  foreign  and  do- 
mestic, what  the  Pacific  road  and  its  branches  will  be  to  the 
United  States,  passing  the  Ural  and  its  boundless  mineral 
wealth  midway,  as  the  American  road  will  the  Rocky  moun- 
tains. No  one  doubts  that  the  American  railway  will  be 
completed  at  no  distant  period,  and  who  that  considers  the 
past  progress  and  present  power  of  Russia  shall  say  that 
she  will  not  also  construct  a  Pacific  railway,  aided  by  Ame- 
rican skill  and  experience. 

This,  for  Russia,  would  only  be  to  construct  the  modern 
iron  road,  with  steam  carriages,  along  the  old  highway  of 
her  Eastern  commerce,  and  certainly  it  would  be  an  instruc- 
tive sight  to  the  boastful  powers  of  western  Europe  if  the 
two  nations  who  have  been  the  chief  object  of  their  ridi- 
cule, one  as  barbarian,  and  the  other  as  composed  of  back- 
woodsmen, should  ere  long  present  them  with  one  continuous 
line  of  railway  and  ocean  steam  navigation,  reaching  round 
the  globe  and  turning  the  commerce  of  the  East  through 
the  heart  of  America  and  Russia.  Such  a  result  is  by  no 
means  impossible. 


KUSSU  EASILY  GOVEIOTBD  FROM  ONE  CENTER.  201 


CHAPTER    XIX 


BIJSSIA  EASILY  GOVERNED  FROM  ONE  CENTER. 

It  has  already  been  remarked  tliat  no  extent  of  territorial 
possession,  however  fertile  its  soil,  or  however  dense  its 
population,  will  afford  a  foundation  for  true  national  great- 
ness, unless  it  is  a  contiguous  territory,  or  can  in  some 
manner  be  bound  into  one  whole,  so  that  the  remotest  ex- 
tremity will  feel  the  influence  of  a  central  life.  With  such 
methods  of  communication  only  as  the  ancients  possessed, 
no  widely-extended  government  could  long  maintain  itself 
united  and  secure ;  and  with  these  examples  of  failure  and 
dissolution  before  them,  the  wisest  of  the  early  American 
statesmen  felt  little  inclination  to  enlarge  our  national  do- 
main ;  and  only  a  few  years  since,  the  idea  of  retaining  a 
united  dominion  over  our  present  territory  would  have 
been  rejected  by  many,  perhaps  by  most,  as  absurd.  But 
the  steam  vessel,  the  railway,  and  the  telegraph,  practically 
condense  a  continent  into  the  space  of  a  province,  and  all 
are  now  convinced  that  the  magnitude  of  our  country  will 
never  destroy  the  efficiency  or  unity  of  the  government. 
That  alone  would  not  now  prevent  one  central  power  from 
controlling  the  two  Americas.  In  examining,  therefore, 
the  elements  of  power  possessed  by  Russia,  it  is  necessary 
to  consider  more  particularly  than  we  have  hitherto  done. 


202  RUSSIA  EASILY  GOVBIINED   FROM   ONE   CENTER. 

the  nature  of  these  facilities  for  intercourse  between  different 
parts  of  her  empire,  which  she  now  enjoys,  or  may  prob- 
ably create  hereafter,  in  the  regular  and  natural  develop- 
ment of  her  resources.  We  shall  then  understand  whether 
she  is  likely  to  remain  a  firmly-compacted  whole,  animate 
with  a  single  life,  or  whether  she  must  be  regarded  as  a 
mass  of  heterogeneous  materials  loosely  cohering  even  now, 
and  soon  to  be  separated  entirely.  A  glance  has  been  be- 
stowed upon  this  point,  in  the  brief  comparison  instituted 
between  the  United  States  and  Russia,  but  the  means  of 
internal  communication  enjoyed  by  the  latter  demand  a 
more  particular  description.  This  may  properly  commence 
with  the  rivers  of  the  country.  These  may  be  separated 
into  ^ve  groups,  viz. :  the  Pacific,  the  Arctic  Ocean,  the 
Caspian,  the  Black  Sea,  and  the  Baltic.  Beginning  in  the 
east  with  the  river  basins  which  stretch  from  the  southern 
base  of  the  Altai  mountains,  southeastward  toward  the  Pa- 
cific, there  is  an  extensive  region  of  whose  rivers  little  is 
known,  except  the  Amoor,  and  even  in  regard  to  that  our 
information  is  scanty  and  unsatisfactory,  it  having  been 
until  quite  lately  within  the  guarded  Chinese  dominions. 
It  must  henceforth  be  regarded  as  a  Eussian  river,  the 
natural  and  necessary  outlet  of  the  whole  eastern  portion 
of  the  empire.  It  is  described  as  a  "  splendid  stream,"  hav- 
ing a  course  of  twenty -two  hundred  miles,  for  a  large  portion 
of  which  it  is  said  to  be  navigable.  Such  a  river  must,  of 
course,  drain  a  territory  proportionate  to  its  own  magni- 
tude, and  the  glowing  though  indefinite  accounts  of  the 
wide  and  fertile  plains  that  lie  along  its  banks,  together 
with  its  actual  magnitude  and  the  distance  for  which  it  is 
navigable,  remind  one  of  the  Mississippi  and  its  valley,  below 
St.  Louis.  Such  a  stream  must  also  be  sustained  by  many 
important  affluents  of  which  nothing  definite  is  known  to 
Europeans.  Its  whole  course  is  through  an  attractive  and 
productive  region,  and  it  requires  but  a  slight  effort  of  the 
imagination  to  present  a  picture  of  this  great  valley  as  it 
will  be,  when  fleets  of  steamers  shall  cover  the  Amoor  and 
its  tributaries,  not  only  bearing  the  production  of  the  adja- 


RUSSIA  EASILY  GOVERNED  FROM  ONE  CENTER.     203 

cent  countries,  but  interchanging  the  commodities  of  Europe, 
Asia,  and  America. 

This  stream  rises  in  the  province  of  Irkoutsk  in  southern 
Siberia,  and  flowing  in  a  southeasterly  direction  into  the 
Sea  of  Japan,  seems  to  have  been  formed  with  especial 
reference  to  the  trade  of  Asiatic  Russia,  reaching  from  the 
Chinese  seas  to  the  head-streams  of  one  of  the  largest  rivers 
in  Siberia  that  empties  into  the  Arctic  Ocean,  and  is  thus 
prepared  to  receive  the  trade  of  the  valley  of  the  Lena— 
which  reaches  to  the  frozen  shores  of  the  Polar  sea. 

This  extreme  eastern  portion  then  of  Russia,  is  a  vast  and 
fertile  river  basin,  stretching  from  the  Sea  of  Japan  north- 
westerly to  south-eastern  Siberia,  traversed  by  a  stream 
navigable  for  more  than  a  thousand  miles,  according  to  esti- 
mates of  river  navigation  made  before  American  steamboats 
on  our  western  rivers  had  shown  how  small  a  stream  is 
capable  of  floating  a  profitable  commerce.  On  the  head- 
waters of  the  Amoor,  that  vast  plain  is  reached  which  in- 
clines slightly  to  the  Arctic  Sea,  and  across  which  flow 
some  of  the  longest  rivers  of  Asia.  The  traveler  from  the 
Pacific,  following  up  the  valley  of  the  Amoor,  would  strike 
first  in  the  province  of  Irkoutsk,  the  upper  waters  of  the 
Lena,  then  passing  far  westward,  he  would  reach  the  valley 
of  the  Yenisei,  and  finally  at  the  eastern  base  of  the  Ural 
mountains,  he  would  find  a  third  broad  river  basin,  that  of 
the  Obi.  Each  of  these  mighty  streams  is  said  to  have  a 
course  of  more  than  two  thousand  miles.  Along  these  vast 
valleys,  for  about  one-half  their  extent,  the  cereals  of  Europe 
come  to  maturity;  and  he  who  knows  what  success  has 
crowned  agricultural  labor  in  Minnesota,  and  even  much 
further  north,  where  the  range  of  the  thermometer  is  much 
the  same  as  in  southern  Siberia,  will  not  hastily  conclude 
that  the  latter  must  be  regarded  only  as  a  frozen,  desert 
waste. 

The  actual  extent  of  arable  land  can  not  be  estimated, 
with  our  present  means  of  information ;  but  the  value  of 
uncultivated  lands  in  high  northern  latitudes,  is  almost 
universally  underrated.    Immense  tracts  of  natural  pasture 


204     RUSSIA  EASILY  GOVERNED  FROM  ONE  CENTER. 

spread  over  these  great  plains ;  heavy  forests  skirt  the 
streams,  even  within  the  Arctic  circle,  furnishing  exhaust- 
less  supplies  of  valuable  timber,  while  the  fisheries  of  the 
rivers,  and  the  furs  of  the  northern  districts  are  of  them- 
selves the  sources  of  a  very  important  trade.  On  the  western 
frontier  of  Siberia,  and  along  the  western  edge  of  the  valley 
of  the  Obi,  rise  the  Ural  mountains,  embosoming  a  mineral 
wealth  without  a  parallel  on  the  globe,  except  in  the  great 
mountain  ranges  of  America.  These  rivers  and  their  tri- 
butaries are  navigable  for  most  of  their  course  for  about  six 
months  in  the  year,  and  considering  the  resources  and  extent 
of  the  country,  it  is  easy  to  perceive  what  it  may  become 
with  a  railway  crossing  these  valleys,  from  the  head  of 
steamboat  navigation  on  the  Amoor  to  the  mineral  regions 
in  the  Ural,  from  whence  there  is  already  a  river  navigation 
fitted  for  small  steam  vessels  to  the  Caspian,  the  Black  Sea, 
and  the  Baltic. 

Before  any  one  turns  away  from  such  statements,  as  idle 
and  empty  speculation,  let  him  calmly  consider  the  progress 
of  the  United  States  within  the  last  twenty  years,  and  the 
certainty  that  the  whole  breadth  of  our  continent  will  very 
soon  be  spanned  by  a  railway  having  one  terminus  on  the 
Atlantic  and  the  other  on  the  Pacific,  and  then  remember 
that  in  rapidity  of  growth  and  improvement,E,ussia  stands 
next  to  America.  Siberia  then,  traversed  from  north  to 
south  by  rivers  whose  magnitude  compares  with  those  of 
North  America,  requires  but  a  line  of  communication  cross- 
ing them  from  east  to  west,  such  as  a  railway  would  supply, 
to  develope  her  great  resources,  and  put  her  in  connection 
both  with  Asia  and  Europe.  Her  third  system  of  rivers 
embraces  those  which  fall  into  the  Caspian  Sea.  Of  these 
the  Volga  alone  requires  to  be  mentioned.  This  is  the 
largest  river  of  Europe,  being  two  thousand  miles  in  length, 
one  and  a  quarter  miles  broad  at  its  mouth,  and  navigable 
almost  to  its  very  source,  or  perhaps  even,  for  steamboats 
like  those  of  our  western  rivers,  through  its  entire  course, 
as  it  rises  from  a  lake.  It  may  be  compared  to  the  Missis- 
sippi, reckoning  from  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony  to  the  Gulf 


RUSSIA  EASILY  GOVERNED  FROM  ONE  CENTER.     205 

of  Mexico.  It  receives  numerous  important  affluents  from 
the  east  and  north-east,  which  connect  the  main  stream  by 
navigable  waters,  not  only  with  important  agricultural  dis- 
tricts, but  with  the  mining  regions  of  the  Ural.  In  the 
lower  part  of  its  course  it  approaches  within  about  thirty 
miles  of  the  Don,  at  a  point  where  the  nature  of  the  country 
offers  no  impediment  to  the  construction  of  a  ship  canal, 
which  has  been  often  projected,  and  even  commenced,  but 
not  completed.  By  this  comparatively  small  work,  the 
whole  valley  of  the  Volga  and  the  western  slope  of  the 
Ural,  would  be  connected  directly  with  the  Black  Sea  and 
the  Mediterranean. 

One  of  the  tributaries  of  the  Volga,  coming  from  the 
northeast,  has  a  course  of  one  thousand  miles,  about  equal  to 
the  Ohio  from  Pittsburgh  to  the  Mississippi,  and  another, 
the  Oka,  on  a  branch  of  which  is  Moscow,  is  seven  hundred 
miles  long,  and  navigable  almost  to  its  source.  The  Volga 
is  united  by  a  canal  with  the  Duna,  which  empties  into  the 
Gulf  of  Riga,  and  thus  uninterrupted  navigation  is  estab- 
lished between  the  Caspian  Sea  and  the  Baltic.  Another 
canal  connects  a  tributary  of  the  Oka  with  the  Don,  and 
this  opens  an  indirect  communication  between  the  Black 
Sea  and  the  Caspian.  Still  another  canal  unites  the  Volga 
with  the  Dwina,  which  flows  into  the  White  Sea,  and  thus 
another  navigable  line  is  formed  from  the  southern  ex- 
tremity of  the  empire,  through  its  very  heart,  to  Archangel 
and  the  Frozen  Ocean.  Yet  another  work  opens  a  con- 
nection between  the  Volga  and  the  Lake  Onega,  and  St. 
Petersburg,  and  this  city  is  also  united  with  Moscow  both 
by  canal  and  railway.  There  are  thus  three  main  lines  of 
water  communication  across  the  entire  breadth  of  European 
Russia.  One  from  the  mineral  region  of  the  Ural  to  St. 
Petersburg  and  the  Baltic ;  one  from  the  Caspian  north- 
ward to  the  Arctic  Ocean,  and  one  from  the  Caspian,  and 
also  from  the  Ural,  through  to  the  Duna,  to  the  Baltic ; 
and  even  yet  another,  by  the  way  of  the  Oka  and  Moscow, 
to  St.  Petersburg  by  the  canal.  This  is  quite  independent 
of  that  great  number  of  smaller  streams  and  shorter  con- 


206     RUSSIA  EASILY  GOVERNED  FROM  ONE  CENTER. 

nections  known  only  to  the  inhabitants  of  a  country.  To- 
gether, they  present  a  perfect  network  of  veins  and  arteries, 
along  which  the  tides  of  internal  commerce  flow.  iRext 
are  the  rivers  which  flow  into  the  Black  Sea.  Among  these 
are :  the  Dnieper,  which  is  twelve  hundred  miles  long,  a 
broad  and  deep  stream,  navigable  for  a  large  portion  of  its 
course ;  the  Bog,  or  Boug,  which  is  more  than  four  hun- 
dred miles  long,  and  navigable ;  and  the  Don,  which  is  also 
a  navigable  stream,  is  about  ^Ye  hundred  miles  in  length. 
The  lower  portion  of  this  stream  will  be  the  channel  of 
an  immense  trade  so  soon  as  the  canal  is  finished  between 
it  and  the  Volga,  a  distance  of  about  thirty  miles ;  and, 
finally,  the  Kouban,  a  shallow  stream  coming  from  the  Cau- 
casus, and  navigable  only  for  boats  of  a  light  draught.  Its 
length  is  about  four  hundred  miles. 

In  addition  to  the  rivers  already  mentioned,  the  Danube, 
having  sixty  navigable  tributaries,  falls  into  the  Black  Sea. 
Russia  has  obtained  the  control  of  the  mouths  of  this  im- 
portant European  stream,  and  her  fortress  of  Ismail  com- 
mands the  commerce  which  passes  by  the  northern  or 
Xilia  branch.  If,  as  is  said,  the  bar  across  the  mouth  of 
the  Sulinah,  or  middle  branch,  is  yearly  increasing,  the 
whole  trade  of  the  Danube  may  be  thrown  into  the  north- 
ern channel,  and  must  pass  under  the  guns  of  a  Russian  for- 
tification. Russia  owns  the  north  shore  of  the  Danube  as  far 
as  Galatz,  near  which*  town  it  receives  the  Pruth,  which, 
in  a  course  of  more  than  Rve  hundred  miles,  flows  along 
the  province  of  Bessarabia.  The  fifth  system  of  Russian 
rivers  is  connected  with  the  Baltic.  Its  streams  are  smaller 
than  those  already  described,  but  their  commercial  import- 
ance is,  nevertheless,  great.  The  l^eva,  on  which  St.  Peters- 
burgh  is  built,  has  its  source  in  the  Lake  Ladoga,  which 
is  one  hundred  and  thirty  miles  long,  while  it  averages 
seventy -five  miles  in  breadth.  The  shores  of  the  Ladoga, 
and  the  commerce  of  the  streams  which  empty  into  this 
lake,  some  of  which  bring  the  productions  of  the  Ural, 
make  the  l^eva  the  channel  of  a  very  extensive  trade.  The 
Duna  discharges  itself  into  the  Gulf  of  Riga,  and  being 


RUSSIA  EASILY  GOVERNED  FROM  ONE  CENTER.     207 

connected  by  a  canal  with  the  Volga,  as  has  already  been 
stated,  it  floats  an  extensive  commerce.  The  Vistula  is  the 
chief  river  of  Poland,  and  at  "Warsaw  it  is  about  seven 
hundred  feet  broad. 

This  completes  a  general,  but  by  no  means  a  full,  survey 
of  the  facilities  afforded  by  the  Russian  rivers  for  internal 
trade  and  travel.  The  government  has  already  begun  the 
establishment  of  lines  of  river  steamers  of  the  American 
build,  and  they  are  now  running  almost  to  the  very  base  of 
the  Ural  mountains.  'No  long  time  will  elapse  before  these 
almost  countless  streams  will  present  the  aspect  of  our 
American  rivers,  and  business  and  towns  will  spring  up 
along  their  banks,  as  they  have  already  done,  by  the  use  of 
similar  means,  in  the  Mississippi  valley.  The  flat  boat  and 
the  horse  barges  will  disappear  from  Russian  waters,  as  the 
broad-horns  have  from  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi,  and 
steam,  both  on  the  water  and  on  the  land,  will  convey  the 
trafiic  of  the  empire. 

As  already  stated,  the  country  of  the  Czar  can  boast  of 
no  such  connected  chain  of  great  lakes  as  are  found  in 
America.  Still  it  is  a  land  of  lakes,  and  gulfs,  and  inland 
3eas,  which  afford  great  facility  for  its  commerce.  On  the 
west  and  northwest,  almost  countless  gulfs  and  bays  shoot 
inland  from  the  Atlantic,  giving  long  lines  of  interior  sea- 
coast,  and  communicating  with  her  navigable  rivers.  Lake 
Baikal,  in  Southern  Siberia,  is  about  the  size  of  Lake  Erie, 
and  its  valuable  fisheries  form  the  basis  of  an  important 
commerce.  The  Caspian  Sea  is  but  an  immense  salt-lake, 
about  eight  hundred  miles  long ;  and  the  Black  Sea,  and 
the  Baltic,  may  also  be  regarded  as  merely  interior  seas,  of 
which  Russia  will  ultimately  retain  the  chief  control,  in 
spite  of  the  combined  efforts  of  western  Europe.  The 
lakes  Ladoga  and  Onega  are  by  no  means  inconsiderable 
bodies  of  water,  the  first  having  an  area  of  more  than  six 
thousand  square  miles,  and  the  latter  being  one  hundred 
and  thirty  miles  long  and  fifty  miles  in  breadth.  Smaller 
lakes,  many  of  them  large  enough  to  become  channels  of 
trade,  are  scattered  through  both  European  and  Asiatic 


208     RUSSIA  EASILY  GOVERNED  FROM  ONE  CENTER. 

Eussia.  The  largest  of  these  are  united  either  naturally  or 
by  canals,  with  the  navigable  rivers,  and  thus,  when  the 
progress  of  the  country  has  covered  these  countless  chan- 
nels with  steamboats,  and  when  that  system  of  railways, 
already  begun  on  an  enlightened  scale,  shall  be  completed, 
Russia  will  posssess  more  abundant  means  for  intercourse 
and  exchange,  for  the  diffusion  of  one  national  life,  and  the 
preservation  of  national  unity  than  any  other  country  on  earth 
enjoys  unless  it  be  our  own.  "With  a  Pacific  railway  crossing 
Siberia,  in  addition  to  her  natural  advantages,  and  her  sys- 
tem of  roads  in  Europe  already  projected  and  partly  finished 
she  may  extend  her  limits  almost  indefinitely,  and  yet  not 
peril  the  unity  of  her  government  on  account  of  her  magni- 
tude. Her  position  will  be  widely  different  from  that  of 
England,  with  possessions  in  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe, 
that  admit  of  no  union ;  she  will  be  one  compact  and  living 
national  body,  growing  and  sustained  by  the  power  of  one 
central  life. 


RUSSIA  HAS  FEW  VULNERABLE  POINTS.  209 


CHAPTER   XX. 


BUSSIA  HAS  FEW  VULNERABLE  POINTS. 


Before  entering  upon  this  subject,  it  is  well  to  remind 
the  American  reader  of  the  utter  worthlessness  of  many  of 
the  most  popular  accounts  which  have  been  given  of  the 
resources  of  Russia,  and  the  character  of  her  military 
defenses.  The  statements  which  travelers  have  made  con- 
cerning the  Empire  of  the  Czars  are  only  to  be  matched  in 
absurdity  or  wanton  misrepresentation  by  those  which  have 
emanated  from  similar  quarters  concerning  the  United 
States.  Either  a  vitiated  public  sentiment,  or  a  settled 
design  to  injure,  has  given  rise  to  a  systematic  course  of 
ridicule  and  misrepresentations,  forming  a  distorted  literary 
medium  through  which  both  countries  have  been  seen  only 
in  caricature.  Through  this,  western  Europe  has  sneered 
at  America  and  the  Yankees,  and  through  this  also  Ameri- 
cans have  been  greatly  deluded  in  regard  to  Kussia.  Oli- 
phant,  whose  opininions  are  quoted  as  reliable  authority 
in  this  country,  and  whose  statements  were  transfered  to 
an  elaborate  American  work,  and  sent  forth  to  mold  public 
opinion  concerning  Russia,  with  the  remark  that  they  are 
valuable  because  the  result  of  recent  observation,  writes 
thus  concerning  Sebastopol,  from  personal  survey,  no  longer 
14 


210  RUSSIA  HAS   FEW   VULNERABLE   POINTS. 

ago  than  1853,  but  a  few  months  before  the  landing  of  the 
Allied  army : 

"  !N'othing  can  be  more  formidable  than  the  appearance 
of  Sebastopol  from  the  seaward.  Upon  a  future  occasion 
we  visited  it  in  a  steamer,  and  found  that  at  one  point  we 
were  commanded  by  twelve  hundred  pieces  of  artillery; 
fortunately  for  a  hostile  fleet,  we  afterwards  heard,  that 
they  could  not  be  discharged  without  bringing  down  the 
rotten  batteries  upon  which  they  were  placed,  and  which 
are  so  badly  constructed  that  they  look  as  if  they  had  been 
done  by  contract.  Four  of  these  forts  consist  of  three  tiers 
of  batteries.  We  were  of  course  unable  to  do  more  than 
take  a  very  general  survey  of  these  celebrated  fortifications, 
and  therefore  can  not  vouch  for  the  truth  of  the  assertion, 
that  the  rooms  in  which  the  guns  are  worked  are  so  narrow 
and  ill- ventilated,  that  the  artillerymen  would  be  inevitably 
stifled  in  the  attempt  to  discharge  their  guns  and  their  duty ; 
but  of  one  fact  there  was  no  doubt,  that  however  well  forti- 
fied may  be  the  approaches  to  Sebastopol  by  sea,  there  is 
nothing  whatever  to  prevent  any  number  of  troops  landing 
a  few  miles  to  the  south  of  the  town,  in  one  of  the  six  con- 
venient bays  with  which  the  coast,  as  far  as  Cape  Kherson, 
is  indented,  and  marching  down  the  main  street,  (provided 
they  were  strong  enough  to  defeat  any  military  force  that 
might  be  opposed  to  them  in  the  open  field,)  sack  the 
town  and  burn  the  fleet." 

Such  absurdities  as  these  are  gravely  sent  forth  from  the 
English  press,  as  the  foundation  of  reliable  opinions  con- 
cerning Eussia.  Oliphant's  work  has  gone  through  several 
London  editions ;  it  was  republished  in  America,  and  its 
opinions  were  extracted  and  scattered  abroad  in  American 
books.  The  siege  of  this  fortification  is  a  sufficient  com- 
mentary upon  the  value  of  the  book,  and  when  the  strength 
of  a  place  that  for  months  successfully  resisted  the  most 
formidable  attack  which  has  been  made  in  modern  times  is 
thus  flippantly  misrepresented,  and  when  we  remember  that 


RUSSIA  HAS  FEW  VULNERABLE  POINTS.  211 

such  impressions  concerning  Russia  are,  or  have  been, 
almost  universal,  and  have  been  derived  from  similar  sources, 
it  ought  at  least  to  induce  the  American  people  to  examine 
with  more  care  the  testimony  upon  which  they  are  asked 
to  make  up  an  opinion  of  the  resources,  character,  and 
policy  of  the  most  formidable  power  in  Europe.  The  Allied 
forces  tested  the  character  of  the  fortifications  at  Sebasto- 
pol,  and  the  same  science  and  skill  have  been  employed 
upon  the  other  defenses  of  the  Empire.  Especially  should 
we  expect  that  those  in  the  west,  by  which  the  approaches 
to  St.  Petersburgh  are  protected,  and  which  guard  her  great 
naval  depots,  are  at  least  equal  to  those  in  the  remote  pro- 
vince of  the  Crimea.  It  is  sufficient  proof  of  their  supposed 
strength,  that  the  Baltic  fleet  did  not  venture,  within  reach 
of  their  guns. 

The  principal  outlet  for  the  Russian  empire,  on  the  west, 
is  the  Gulf  of  Finland,  and  here  also  are  three  of  her  great 
naval  stations.  As  this  is  the  only  point  where  she  can  be 
approached  from  the  Atlantic  by  a  hostile  fleet,  it  is  well  to 
observe  how  her  fleets,  navy  yards,  military  stores,  and 
capital  are  protected.  At  the  entrance  of  the  Gulf  of  Fin- 
land are  two  of  the  naval  stations  where  she  equips,  and 
where  also  she  guards  her  ships.  The  most  important  is 
Sweaborg,  in  the  Bay  of  Helsingfors.  This  immense  for- 
tification is  constructed  upon  several  small  islands,  or  rather 
rocks  of  granite,  out  of  which  the  works  have  to  a  great 
extent  been  blasted  and  hewn,  after  the  manner  of  Gibral- 
tar, to  which  it  is  scarcely  inferior  in  strength,  and  is 
denominated  the  Gibraltar  of  the  Il^orth.  Eight  hundred 
pieces  of  artillery  frown  from  its  impregnable  walls,  and 
command  the  entrance  to  a  magnificent  harbor,  which,  to 
use  the  words  of  a  late  traveler,  is  "  filled  with  ships  of  the 
"  line  and  frigates,"  and  in  which  they  may  safely  ride  free 
from  the  visits  of  a  foe,  unless  the  rock  sides  of  Sweaborg 
can  be  scaled  in  the  teeth  of  eight  hundred  cannon,  and 
in  spite  of  fifteen  thousand  men  who  man  them.  Here, 
too,  the  walls  of  the  formidable  batteries,  being  of  solid 
granite,  will  not  be  likely  to  tumble  down  when  the  guns 


212  RUSSIA  HAS   FEW  VULNERABLE   POINTS. 

are  fired,  as  was  expected  at  Sebastopol.  The  fortress  may 
be  truly  called  impregnable.  Within  the  harbor  are  not 
only  the  Russian  fleets,  but  here,  also,  is  one  of  the  most 
extensive  naval  arsenals  on  the  globe,  and  the  chief  recruit- 
ing station  for  the  Emperor's  navy.  The  province  in  which 
Sweaborg  stands  supplies  the  finest  seamen  of  the  ISTorth — 
those  who  are  inured  to  hardship,  and  who  gain  experience 
and  skill  in  the  fisheries  and  trade  of  the  Baltic — and  here, 
too,  are  exhaustless  supplies  of  the  finest  timber  for  the 
construction  or  repair  of  ships,  as  well  as  of  pitch,  tar,  rosin, 
and  other  naval  stores.  Finland  is  intersected  by  numerous 
bays  and  lakes,  communicating  witb  each  other  in  a  man- 
ner which  afibrds  great  facilities  for  the  transport  of  these 
heavy  materials ;  while,  even  in  this  high  latitude,  its  agri- 
cultural capacities  procured  for  it  the  name  of  the  granary 
of  Sweden,  to  which  government  it  formerly  belonged. 
Here,  safe  from  all  hostile  visits,  and  surrounded  by  mate- 
rials for  unlimited  construction,  Russia  may  increase  her 
navy,  and  accumulate  her  stores,  restricted  only  by  her 
necessities  or  the  condition  of  her  treasury.  It  is  impos- 
sible, moreover,  to  cut  her  off  from  her  supplies,  for  they 
all  reach  this  point  by  interior  communications,  which  a 
foreign  force  can  not  touch. 

On  the  opposite  shore  of  the  entrance  to  the  Gulf  of  Fin- 
land is  Revel,  another  station  for  the  Russian  navy.  Like 
Sweaborg,  it  is  defended  by  extensive  fortifications,  whose 
strength  Sir  Charles  I^apier  did  not  think  proper  to  test 
with  a  fleet  which  many  supposed  would  be  able  to  annihi- 
late the  Russian  power  in  the  Baltic.  Its  roadstead  is  among 
sheltering  islands,  and  the  town  itself  enjoys  considerable 
trade.  In  the  Aland  Archipelago,  a  cluster  of  islands  at 
the  entrance  of  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia,  is  another  naval  station. 
Several  of  these  islands  are  strongly  fortified,  but  the  prin- 
cipal establishment  is  at  Aland,  which  has  a  harbor  capable 
of  sheltering  the  whole  fleet  of  Russia,'  and  a  citadel  where 
sixty  thousand  troops  may  be  quartered.  Here  is  kept  a 
numerous  flotilla,  which  forms  a  good  nursery  for  Russian 
seamen.    The  vicinity  of  these  islands  to  the  coast  of  Swe- 


RUSSIA   HAS  FEW  VULNERABLE   POINTS.  213 

den,  some  of  tliein  scarce  thirty  miles  distant,  forms  perhaps 
their  most  important  feature  in  a  military  point  of  view, 
for  from  them,  at  any  time,  a  descent  may  easily  be  made 
upon  the  Swedish  coast. 

Cronstadt  is,  however,  the  most  important  Russian  for- 
tress in  the  Baltic,  both  as  a  naval  station  and  as  guarding 
the  approach  to  St.  Petersburgh.  It  is  situated  at  the  head 
of  the  Gulf  of  Finland,  and  only  about  sixteen  miles  from 
the  Capital.  The  fortifications  are  constructed  principally 
upon  an  island,  on  one  side  of  which  is  a  narrow  channel, 
completely  commanded  not  only  by  the  long  lines  of  guns 
upon  the  main  island,  but  also  by  batteries  placed  upon  vari- 
ous smaller  islands  and  reefs,  to  say  nothing  of  the  powerful 
fleet  always  stationed  in  the  harbors.  Of  these  harbors 
there  are  three,  or  rather  the  harbor  may  be  said  to  be 
separated  into  three  divisions.  The  outer  one  is  probably 
the  most  important  naval  station  of  the  Empire.  From 
thirty  to  forty  ships  of  the  line  may  float  here,  in  addition 
to  smaller  vessels.  The  second  division  contains  ship-yards, 
docks,  arsenals,  warehouses,  and  all  the  stores  and  machinery 
necessary  not  only  for  ship  building,  but  for  the  equipment 
and  repair  of  the  main  division  of  the  Eussian  navy.  The 
third  harbor  is  devoted  to  trade,  and  can  easily  shelter  a 
thousand  merchantmen.  The  channel  leading  from  the 
Gulf  to  the  I^eva  is  said  to  be  so  narrow  that  a  single  ves- 
sel only  can  pass  at  once,  and  this  passage  must  be  effected 
between  lines  of  cannon  that  could  annihilate  in  a  few 
minutes  any  ship  that  floats.  Besides  this,  ships  drawing 
more  than  nine  feet  of  water  can  not  ascend  beyond  Cron- 
stadt, so  that  St.  Petersburgh  is  absolutely  secure  from  the 
visit  of  a  hostile  vessel,  and  the  impregnable  Cronstadt 
must  be  annihilated  before  an  enemy  could  occupy  the  head 
of  the  Gulf.  The  population  of  Cronstadt,  including  the 
garrison  and  the  marine,  is  said  to  be  about  forty  thou- 
sand. 

The  following  very  graphic  description  of  Cronstadt,  by 
an  officer  attached  to  the  Baltic  fleet,  and  written  on  the 
spot  in  1854,  and  from  personal  survey  of  the  works,  will 


,214  RUSSIA   HAS   FEW   VULNERABLE   POINTS. 

give  the  reader  a  correct  idea  of  this  celebrated  fortress, 
and  of  the  resources,  science,  and  skill  of  the  Power  by 
whom  these  defenses  have  been  constructed : 

"  The  island  of  Cronstadt  lies  in  a  bight  betwixt  tiie  two 
shores  of  the  Gulf,  and  is  nowhere  distant  more  than  about 
six  miles  from  the  mainland  on  either  side ;  and  even  this, 
as  a  navigable  distance,  is  so  much  straited  by  spits,  shal- 
lows and  mud-banks,  that  the  actual  passages  are  reduced 
to  very  confined  limits.  This  is  the  case  especially  with 
the  main  channel,  which  runs  betwixt  the  island  and  the 
south  shore,  and  is  so  narrow  and  shallow  that  its  naviga- 
tion alone,  except  under  experienced  and  skillful  guidance, 
is  a  difficulty.  It  widens  and  deepens  a  little,  however, 
toward  the  southeast  end,  into  a  tolerably  convenient  and 
spacious  anchorage,  and  turning  thence  toward  the  south, 
ends  in  an  inner  harbor,  well  locked,  and  sheltered  by  a 
bend  in  the  land,  and  partly  protected  by  the  Oranienbaum 
spit,  which  juts  out  toward  it  from  the  south  shore,  and 
which,  being  covered  by  only  a  few  feet  of  water,  offers  an 
effectual  barrier  to  the  approach  of  ships,  and  is  impractic- 
able for  the  advance  of  troops.  Two  passages  lead  from 
this  round  the  southeast  side ;  but  these  are  so  intricate,  so 
environed  by  shallows  and  patches,  that  they  are  navigable 
only  by  vessels  of  a  small  class,  and  afford  no  regular  com- 
munication with  the  north  channel,  which  is  broader  and 
deeper  in  the  center  than  the  other,  though  it  also  becomes 
very  shallow  at  some  distance  from  the  shore.  The  island 
itself  is  about  six  miles  long,  and  a  mile  and  a  half  wide  at 
the  southeast,  its  broadest  part.  This  part  represents  the 
root,  and  hangs  on,  like  a  square  piece,  to  the  Tongue, 
whi-ch  shoots  out  narrow  and  narrower  toward  the  tip, 
until  it  ends  in  a  few  broken  rocks,  over  which  the  waves 
ripple.  Slightly  raised  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  a  little 
barren  tract  of  rock  and  sand,  it  would  scarcely  afford  sus- 
tenance for  a  family,  or  feed  a  flock  of  sheep,  yet  now,  cut 
into  docks,  covered  with  barracks  and  storehouses,  and 


RUSSIA   HAS   FEW  VULNERABLE   POINTS.  215 

surrounded  by  forts,  it  is  a  prize  which  mighty  nations 
strive  to  win  and  to  keep. 

"  Let  us  next  see  how  art  has  so  much  enhanced  the  value 
of  the  spot  we  have  been  surveying.  A  first  object  in  the 
design  which  sought  to  convert  it  into  a  naval  arsenal  was, 
of  course,  to  find  a  suitable  site  for  the  docks,  magazines 
and  defenses,  which  must  grow  around  the  harbor  and  an- 
chorage. The  square  end  of  the  island  was  naturally 
adapted  for  this  purpose.  It  had  a  sufficient  and  compact 
space  for  the  building ;  it  was  surrounded  by  the  sea  on  all 
sides,  save  where  it  was  joined  by  a  narrow  neck  of  land 
to  the  promontory  beyond,  and  would  thus  be  protected  by 
a  complete  line  of  circumvallation  ;  and  it  offered,  besides, 
a  facility  for  digging  immense  basins  on  its  south  side, 
which  might  compensate  for  the  smallness  of  the  inner 
harbor,  or  Little  Eoad,  as  it  is  called.  There  are  three  of 
these — ^the  man-of-war,  the  middle,  and  the  merchant  har^ 
bor — all  entered  by  regular  locks  from  the  Little  Eoad.  In 
the  two  former  a  great  part  of  the  Eussian  ships  lie  during 
the  winter  months,  while  their  crews  are  transferred  to  the 
barracks  on  shore. 

"  The  next  step  was  to  defend  these  harbors,  and,  as  a 
consequence,  the  old-fashioned  straggling  fortress  of  Cron- 
stadt  arose.  Then  came  Fort  Peter ;  but,  as  time  went  on, 
it  was  deemed  necessary  that  the  Great  Eoad,  and  even 
the  entrance,  should  have  their  defenses.  But  the  passage 
into  the  harbors  was  about  mid-channel,  and  could  not 
therefore  be  effectually  commanded  by  forts  on  either  shore. 
This  was,  however  no  obstacle,  no  difficulty  to  a  system 
which  has  raised  a  city  on  a  marsh ;  and  straightway  there 
sprang  up  a  succession  of  gigantic  island  fortresses,  com^ 
manding  every  approach,  and  threatening  at  many  points  a 
concentration  of  fire  which  must  inevitably  annihilate  any 
attacking  force. 

"  We  must  review  these  forts  in  the  reverse  order  from 
their  construction,  and  begin  from  the  outside,  as  though 
we  were  advancing  to  the  attack.  Let  us  suppose,  then, 
that  we  are  making  for  their  entrance.    The  first  object 


216  RUSSIA  HAS  FEW  VULNERABLE   POINTS. 

whicli  presents  itself  is  the  Tulbuken,  a  tall,  solid,  beacon- 
tower,  stanking  on  a  rock,  connected  probably  by  a  reef 
with  the  island  shore.  We  steamed  onward,  and  on  the 
right  hand,  or  south  side,  Fort  Risbank  rises  before  us,  the 
latest  in  construction,  but  not  the  least  formidable  of  these 
extraordinary  erections.  Like  all  the  others,  it  is  built  on 
a  foundation  formed  by  piles  driven  into  the  mud.  It  has 
two  tiers  of  casemates,  and  on  its  top  are  guns  mounted  en 
barbette.  The  front  facing  the  entrance  obliquely,  presents 
a  curve  springing  from  the  center,  with  a  short  curtain  on 
either  side,  which  at  the  angles  rounds  off  into  towers.  The 
number  of  guns  in  this  fort  is  variously  stated,  but  we  could 
count  fifty-six  embrasures  in  this  front  beside  the  guns  en 
barbette,  and  those  which  may  be  mounted  on  the  rear  face. 
In  describing  these  fortifications,  it  is  difficult  to  use  the 
proper  terms  of  art,  as  their  peculiar  construction  and  pecu- 
liar purposes  required  many  and  wide  deviations  from  gen- 
eral principles.  We  must  therefore  try  to  be  intelligible 
rather  than  scientific.  A  little  farther  on,  on  the  left  hand, 
or  north  side.  Fort  Alexander  greets  us,  a  huge  round  work, 
showing  a  semicircular  front,  bristling  with  four  rows  of 
guns,  one  row  being  en  barbette.  This  fort  is  said  to  contain 
one  hundred  and  thirty-two  guns ;  they  are  of  very  large 
caliber,  and  their  fire  would  effectually  sweep  the  entrance 
of  the  channel,  fianking  and  crossing  that  of  Eisbank. 
Passing  Alexander,  we  are  fairly  in  the  Great  Hoad,  and 
come  within  range  of  Fort  Peter,  a  low  fortification,  on  the 
same  side  as  Alexander  but  nearer  to  the  island.  Two  low 
curtains,  a  large  tower  in  the  center,  and  smaller  towers  at 
either  end,  comprise  the  front  of  this  work.  It  is  not  equal 
to  the  two  others,  either  in  dimensions  or  number  of  guns, 
but  is  still  very  formidable  from  its  enfilading  position.  On 
the  opposite  side,  just  in  front  of  the  point  of  the  Oranien 
baum  spit,  and  flanking  the  mouth  of  the  inner  harbor, 
Cronslott,  or  Cron  Castle,  threatens  us.  This  the  eldest  of 
the  series,  the  first  demonstration  of  the  scheme  of  defense 
which  has  since  been  extended  and  multiplied  so  vastly,  is 
inferior  to  its  successors  in  design  ang  elaborate  workman- 


RUSSIA  HAS  FEW  VULNERABLE   POINTS.  217 

ship.  Though  rather  a  crude  effort  it  answered  its  first 
purpose,  as  a  single  fortress,  well  enough,  and  even  now 
would  play  no  mean  part  in  the  flanking  and  concentrating 
combination  which  forms  the  main  principle  in  the  defense. 
Last,  but  not  least,  either  in  size  or  importance,  Fort  Mens- 
chikoff  rises,  vast  and  glaring,  towering  above  all  the 
others  with  its  four  tiers  and  its  massive  walls.  This  was 
evidently  meant  to  be  the  crowning  stroke  of  the  inner,  as 
Risbank  was  of  the  outer  defenses.  Unlike  its  brethren, 
it  stands  on  terra  firma,  and  is  built  near  the  mole-head,  at 
the  south  angle  of  the  square  end  of  the  island.  It  is 
apparently  a  square,  solid  mass  of  masonry,  constructed 
without  any  very  elaborate  or  scientific  plan,  but  presenting 
a  front  of  casemated  batteries  which  would  fiank  Cronslott, 
and  rake  the  approaches  to  the  inner  harbor  with  a  tre- 
mendous fire.  We  might  think  that  the  achme  of  defense 
had  been  attained  by  such  an  aggregation  of  fortresses ;  so 
thought  not  the  Russians,  for  they  have  moored  some  of 
the  line-of-battle  ships  of  their  fleet  between  Menschikoff 
and  Cronslott,  thus  effectually  barring  the  entrance  to  the 
inner  harbors,  and  forming  an  overwhelming  increase  to 
the  force  already  concentrated  for  their  protection.  Beyond 
this  barrier  line,  and  behind  Menschikoff,  are  the  basins 
before  spoken  of,  and  behind  them  again  are  the  great 
magazine,  the  dockyard  and  canal.  More  to  the  north  are 
laid  out  the  barracks  and  other  public  buildings.  Such, 
and  so  defended,  is  the  southern  channel  of  Cronstadt. 
Such  is  the  place  which  hair-brained  theorists  expected  our 
fleet  to  attack  and  take.  English  hearts  are  stout — English 
ships  are  strong — English  seamen  are  skillful ;  but  the  man 
who  would  lead  them  against  such  fearful  odds  would  lead 
them  to  certain  destruction,  and  leave  the  country  to  mourn 
over  a  catastrophe  greater  and  sadder  than  has  yet  clouded 
her  annals. 

"  Let  us  turn  to  the  north  side,  and  see  what  are  there 
the  characteristics  of  defense  and  the  opportunities  of  at- 
tack. Passing  round  the  Tulbuken,  we  trace  a  low  glitter- 
ing kind  of  rocks  just  rising  above  the  waters ;  then  a 


218  RUSSIA  HAS   FEW  VULNERABLE   POINTS. 

broader  belt  of  red  sand,  slightly  sprinkled  with  trees ;  then 
come  houses,  trees,  and  some  glimpses  of  vegetation,  until 
the  eye  rests  at  last  on  a  large,  well-designed  earthwork, 
not  yet  finished,  around  and  about  the  mounds  of  which 
workmen  are  still  busy  with  pickax,  spade  and  barrow. 
Tracking  onward,  we  follow  the  long,  low  beach,  along 
which  are  rows  of  houses,  masses  of  buildings,  churches 
with  their  gilded  cupolas  and  spires,  and  all  the  varied  ob- 
jects which  constitute  the  features  of  a  town  panorama; 
while  behind  and  above  all  appear  the  tops  of  forts  and 
masts  of  ships.  Looking  very  closely  and  attentively,  we 
can  detect  at  intervals  small  batteries  mounting  a  few  guns, 
and  carrying  on  a  weak  and  broken  line  of  defense,  which 
terminates  at  the  northeast  extremity  in  a  larger  and  more 
pretentious  work. 

"  ^N'othing  very  formidable  here  as  yet — nothing  very  ob- 
structive, save  the  fact  that  large  ships  can  not  approach 
within  a  less  distance  than  three  miles ;  but  gun-boats  and 
small  vessels  might  easily  advance  within  fair  range  of 
town  and  arsenals.  Yes,  this  had  been  foreseen  and  pro- 
vided against  by  a  novel  and  ingenious  expedient.  From  the 
earthwork  in  the  center  of  the  island  a  barrier  had  been 
run  out  obliquely  to  a  distance  of  three  thousand  yards, 
and  then  carried  in  a  slightly  deflecting  line  to  the  shore  of 
the  mainland,  extending  to  a  length  of  six  or  seven  miles, 
and  enclosing  the  passages  opening  from  the  north  to  the 
east  and  south  sides  of  the  island.  The  barrier  consists  of 
columns  of*  piles  placed  at  a  distance  of  eighteen  feet,  and 
rising  within  two  feet  of  the  surface  of  the  water.  These 
columns  are  formed  of  several  piles  driven  into  the  mud  in 
a  circle,  the  center  being  filled  with  rubble.  This  would 
sufficiently  secure  the  shore  from  sudden  assaults,  or  the 
town  from  the  danger  and  annoyance  of  a  distant  fire ;  but 
the  passages — the  weak  and  vital  points  of  the  northern 
defense — could  not  be  trusted  to  an  obstacle  so  partial  in 
its  obstruction,  and  which  a  daring  effort  might  destroy. 
Accordingly  hulks,  lightened  for  the  purpose,  were  moored 
behind  the  barrier — ^in  some  parts  within  point-blank  range 


KUSSIA  HAS   FEW  VULNERABLE   POINTS.  219 

—effectually  covering  it  through  its  whole  extent,  from  the 
angle  of  the  town  to  the  main  land.  In  rear  of  this,  again, 
a  fleet  of  gun-hoats,  under  steam  and  sail,  moved  about 
ready  to  dash  through  the  intervals  and  meet  any  assailant. 
Thus  was  a  triple  barrier  raised — the  first  part  merely  ob- 
structive, the  second  defensive,  the  third  motive,  and  cap- 
able of  being  made  aggressive." 

It  might  have  been  expected,  that  a  careless  or  inefficient 
government,  without  resources  or  military  skill,  or  science, 
such  as  Eussia  has  been  represented  to  be,  and  relying 
upon  the  fact  that  the  entrance  to  the  Black  Sea  was  closed 
by  the  fortresses  of  the  Dardanelles,  would  have  erected 
precisely  such  defenses  as  Oliphant  would  have  the  world 
believe  those  at  Sebastopol  were.  In  such  a  position,  if 
anywhere,  would  be  found  the  ill-constructed  and  neglected 
batteries,  whose  walls,  ready  to  tumble  with  their  own 
weight,  could  by  no  means  stand  the  discharge  of  the  guns. 
Here  should  have  been  found  Russian  officers  without 
science  or  intelligence — here,  admirals,  such  as  Oliphant 
mentions,  who  lose  their  way  between  Odessa  and  Sebasto- 
pol, and  flag-lieu  ten  ants,  who  propose  to  go  ashore  and 
inquire  the  way — ^instead  of  all  which  were  fortifications 
before  whose  massive  strength  the  combined  fleets  of  France 
and  England  only  made  themselves  ridiculous,  and  where 
the  utmost  efforts  of  these  Powers,  with  all  the  appliances 
of  modern  warfare,  were  completely  foiled. 

The  resources  of  the  Russian  Empire,  in  the  East,  re- 
quire no  labored  description.  Siberia  and  the  valley  of  the 
Amoor  contain  exhaustless  supplies  of  timber  and  other 
naval  stores.  The  Siberian  rivers  supply  abundant  facili- 
ties for  transportation,  and  with  the  commerce  of  the  East 
Indian  seas  open  to  her,  and  with  all  materials  at  her  dis- 
posal, in  positions  inaccessible  to  an  enemy,  what  shall 
hinder  her  from  establishing  on  the  Pacific  naval  stations, 
a  mercantile  and  an  armed  marine  which  shall  rival  those 
of  the  West  ?    Such  a  work  would  be  naturally  expected 


220  RUSSIA   HAS   FEW  VULNERABLE   POINTS. 

from  what  she  has  already  performed  elsewhere :  it  accords 
with  the  general  spirit  and  policy  of  the  government. 

The  survey  thus  far  made  of  the  IN'orthern  Empire  cer- 
tainly presents  it  in  a  most  imposing  aspect,  and  exhibits 
the  necessary  foundations  of  a  national  power,  which,  other 
things  being  equal,  would  doubtless  prove  an  overmatch  for 
all  the  rest  of  Europe.  Whether  other  fitting  elements  of 
strength  and  growth  exist  will  be  the  subject  of  future  in- 
quiry. It  is  seen  that  her  territory  is  capable  of  supporting 
a  population  of  hundreds  of  millions,  without  being  more 
densely  peopled  than  [the  rest  of  Europe.  This  territory 
occupies  a  commanding  position  in  the  temperate  zone, 
stretching  between  the  Pacific  and  the  Atlantic,  open  to  the 
commerce  of  Asia  and  Europe,  and  forming  indeed  a  great 
national  highway  between  them,  on  one  side  of  the  globe, 
such  as  America  presents  on  the  other.  These  vast  posses- 
sions are  traversed  from  side  to  side  by  channels  of  inter- 
communication, remote  from  hostile  attack,  while  her  few 
exposed  points,  strong  by  nature,  have  been  rendered  seem- 
ingly impregnable  by  whatever  military  science  can  perform. 
Within  these  defenses,  warlike  preparations  of  every  kind 
can  be  carried  on  secure  from  interruption,  while  her  treas- 
ures of  military  stores,  and  even  her  fieets,  if  she  chooses, 
are  placed  beyond  the  reach  of  an  enemy.  In  addition  to 
all  this,  if  the  seas  are  closed  against  her  by  a  superior 
maritime  power,  a  large  foreign  commerce  is  still  open  to 
her  from  the  East  through  her  own  territory,  and  her 
domestic  productions  and  home  trade  are  so  extensive  as 
to  make  her,  so  far  as  any  nation  can  be,  independent  of  a 
foreign  commerce. 


/ 

RUSSIA  CONTROLLED  BY  ONE  RACE.  221 


CHAPTER    XXI 


RUSSIA  CONTROLLED  BY  ONE  RACE— THIS  GIVES  HER  A  TRUE  NATIONAL 

LIFE. 


It  is  evident,  that  however  extensive  the  territory  of  a 
nation  may  be,  however  productive  its  soil,  or  dense  its 
population,  there  will  still  be  no  solid  foundation  for  great 
and  permanent  national  power  if  this  population  is  com- 
posed of  diverse  races,  bound  together  by  the  force  of  cir- 
cumstances only,  or  forced  into  contact,  not  union,  by 
external  lashings  of  any  kind.  The  moment  the  compress- 
ing bond  is  loosened  in  such  a  case,  the  discordant  mate- 
rials separate,  and  the  whole  mass  of  an  imposing  dynasty 
will  suddenly  crumble  into  fragments,  which  are  scattered 
apart,  because  they  are  not  the  production  of  a  common 
central  life.  Such  has  been  the  fate  of  most  empires  that 
have  grown  out  of  a  succession  of  rapid  conquests.  Suc- 
cess has  attended  them,  until  the  mass  of  material  added 
could  no  longer  be  assimilated,  until  the  national  structure 
became  a  mere  aggregation,  not  one  living  body,  and  the 
constituent  parts  instead  of  being  united  by  mutual  sym- 
pathies were  hurled  asunder  by  mutual  repulsion.  It  has 
been  fashionable  to  look  upon  Russia  as  occupying  this 
precise  position,  and  to  represent  the  Czar  as  ruling  over  a 
rude  mass  of  heterogeneous  and  discontented  tribes,  held 


222         RUSSIA  CONTROLLED  BY  ONE  RACE; 

in  subjection  merely  by  a  cruel  and  relentless  military  des- 
potism. 

These  views  gave  rise  to  the  expectation,  that  in 
in  any  sudden  calamity,  or  in  case  of  the  death  of  Nicho- 
las, Russia  would  be  separated  into  warring  factions,  and 
the  Colossus  of  the  iN'orth  would  vanish  like  the  spectre 
of  the  Brocken.  France  and  England  pleased  them- 
selves, and  calmed  in  part  their  fears,  by  picturing  the 
inherent  weakness  of  the  Muscovite  Empire.  The  general 
tone  which  prevailed  may  be  seen  by  the  following  ex- 
tracts from  one  of  the  ablest  English  Quarterlies,  the  North 
British^  in  IS'ovember,  1854.  The  writer  refers  to  a  former 
article,  in  which  was  pointed  out,  as  he  says,  "  elements  of 
'weakness  in   the   Muscovite  Empire  which  had  never 

*  hitherto  been  duly  estimated."  He  goes  on  to  say,  ""We 
'  reminded  our  readers  that  the  great  conquests  of  Russia 
'  had  been  effected  by  diplomacy  and  not  by  actual  fighting, 

*  and  that  these  conquests  were  annexed  merely — not  assimi- 

*  lated.  All  things  considered,  it  is  by  no  means  unlikely 
'  that  if  the  present  war  continues,  she  may  turn  out  to  have 
'  been  a  gigantic  impostor — that  when  tried  by  the  severi- 

*  ties  of  a  real  struggle,  she  will  prove  weak,  to  a  degree 
'  which  will  astonish  those  whom  she  has  so  long  duped 

*  and  dazzled ;  weak  from  her  unwieldy  magnitude — ^weak 
'  from  her  barbarous  tariffs  and  restrictive  policy — weak 
'  from  the  inherent  inadequacy  of  her  one-eyed  despotism — 
'  weak  from  the  rottenness  of  her  internal  administration — 

*  weak  from  the  suppressed  hatreds  she  has  accumulated 
'  round  her — weak  in  everything  save  her  consummate  skill 

in  simulating  strength."     This  was  written  in  February, 
1854  ;  in  I^ovember,  1854,  the  same  Beview  says :  "  These 
*•  surmises,  which  at  the  time  they  were  uttered  were  con- 

*  sidered  somewhat  wild  and  rash,  have  been  not  only  justi- 
^fied  but  surpassed  by  the  event.     The  feebleness  every- 

*  where  displayed  by  Russia,  both  in  attack  and  defense, 

<  have  been  matter  of  ceaseless  astonishment.   *    *    *    ^g 

*  soon  as  it  was  known  that  the  expedition  to  the  Crimea 

<  was  resolved  upon,  we  took  for  granted  that  the  Crimea 


THIS  GIVES  HER  A  TRUE  NATIONAL  LIFE.  223 

"  would  be  conquered,  and  that  Sebastopol  would  ultimately 
*^fall  into  our  hands ;  but  assuredly  no  one  anticipated  that 
"  after  months  of  notice,  our  armies  would  have  been  suf- 
"  fered  to  land  without  the  faintest  attempt  at  opposition ; 
"  that  our  victory  would  have  been  so  signal,  so  decisive, 
"and  80  rapid;  or  that  the  greatest  fortified  harbor  of 
"  Russia — probably  the  strongest  in  the  world — would  be 
"  taken  on  such  easy  terms,  and  in  so  brief  a  period.  Hence- 
" forth,  the  prestige  of  Eussian  military  power  is  gone; 
"  Europe  need  dread  her  arms  no  more.  The  Czar,  hitherto 
"  the  great  bugbear  of  Europe  and  of  Asia,  has  been  beaten 
"on  all  hands." 

In  a  subsequent  portion  of  the  same  article,  the  writer 
boasts  and  exults  as  follows,  giving,  as  will  be  seen,  also,  a 
highly  significant  side-roar  of  the  British  lion  at  the  Ame- 
ricans, who,  after  such  English  victories  in  the  Black  Sea, 
will,  he  thinks,  be  a  "  trifle  less  insolent  and  overbearing," 
when  they  remember  that  the  Baltic  fleet  can  winter  in  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico : 

"  But  if  IN'icholas  had  been  less  rash  or  less  stubborn  we 
should  never  have  been  stirred  into  activity  suflicient  to 
afiford  the  world  the  astounding  spectacle  it  saw  in  April 
and  May.  In  a  few  weeks  time  we  sent  forth  the  two 
largest  and  best-manned  fleets  that  ever  left  our  shores,  and, 
beyond  all  parallel,  the  best  equipped  army  that  ever  sailed 
from  England  on  any  expedition — ^both  fleet  and  army  pro- 
vided with  every  new  invention  of  science  to  which  expe- 
rience or  judgment  had  given  their  sanction.  *  *  The 
Baltic  fleet  alone  consisted  of  forty-two  ships,  twenty-two 
hundred  guns,  sixteen  thousand  horse-power,  and  twenty- 
two  thousand  sailors  and  marines. 

"  In  1852  and  1853,  there  were  doubts  whether  we  had 
either  ships  or  men  sufficient  to  defend  our  own  shores 
against  a  sudden  descent.  In  1854  we  sent  to  our  Ally 
both  land  and  naval  auxiliary  forces,  which  have  check- 
mated, conquered,  and  despoiled  his  colossal  antagonist. 
All  this,  too,  was  done  rapidly,  silently,  and  easily ;  regi- 


224         RUSSIA  CONTROLLED  BY  ONE  RACE; 

ments  were  recruited,  and  ships  were  manned,  without  diffi- 
culty ;  volunteers  flocked  both  to  the  militia  and  the  navy; 
the  moment  there  was  a  prospect  of  active  service  men  were 
forthcoming  in  ample  numbers,  and  neither  conscription 
nor  impressment  had  to  be  resorted  to.  This  magnificent 
spectacle  will  not  be  lost  either  on  Europe  or  America,  or 
on  ourselves.  Already  a  great  change  of  tone  on  all  hands 
is  observable.  Our  foes  have  had  a  forewarning  with  what 
sort  of  a  people  they  will  have  to  deal ;  our  transatlantic 
cousins  loill  become  a  trifle  less  insolent  and  overbearing  when , 
they  find  that  the  fleet  which  summers  in  the  Baltic  can,  with- 
out cost  or  effort,  lointer  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico^ 

In  the  summer,  then,  England  proposed  to  amuse  herself 
with  demolishing  Russia,  and  in  the  winter  she  would  be 
occupied  with  checking  the  insolence  of  her  "  transatlantic 
cousins."  This,  moreover,  agrees  with  the  declaration  of 
Lord  Clarendon,  with  the  corresponding  semi-official  state- 
ment of  the  French  government  of  the  far-reaching  inten- 
tions of  the  English  and  French  Alliance,  viz :  that  it  had 
reference  to  the  western  as  well  as  the  eastern  hemisphere. 
The  Review  thus  sums  up  the  results  of  the  first  campaign, 
up  to  November,  1854 : 

"  Russia,  the  great  bugbear  of  Europe,  and  the  great  foe 
of  free  development,  shorn  of  her  prestige,  baffled,  beaten 
back,  blockaded  and  despoiled — deprived,  in  a  single  year, 
of  the  conquests  of  half  a  century  of  intrigue  and  violence, 
not  only  thwarted  and  checked,  but  humbled  and  crippled, 
retreating  across  the  Pruth  in  place  of  advancing  beyond 
the  Danube ;  and  paying  for  the  massacre  of  Sinope  by 
the  loss  of  Sebastopol  and  the  Crimea.  Such  are  the  results 
of  the  first  campaign." 

Such  was  the  language,  not  of  some  vain,  flippant  trav 
eler,  but  of  one  of  the  gravest  and  stateliest  Reviews  of  the 
British  Empire,  and  when  such  a  Quarterly  as  the  North 
British  will  indulge  itself  in  such  transparent  folly,  we  are 
led  to  believe  that  the  British  government  really  sent 


» 


THIS   GIVES   HER  A  TRUE   NATIONAL   LIFE.  225 

forth  its  fleets  and  armies  in  this  same  spirit,  and  with  the 
same  opinions  of  Eussia.  What  a  scorching  commentary 
upon  such  an  article  subsequent  events  have  given  ! 

These  things  are  not  mentioned  for  the  purpose  of  taunt- 
ing or  reproaching  England,  but  as  historical  facts  whose 
significance  ought  to  be  calmly  considered  by  Americans. 
They  show,  first  of  all,  the  spirit  of  England  in  regard  to 
Kussia,  and  the  worthlessness  of  most  opinions  and  state- 
ments which  have  issued  from  the  British  press  concerning 
their  northern  neighbors,  and  it  should  not  be  forgotten 
that  these  views,  most  derogatory  to  Eussia,  which  are 
passing  current  in  our  country,  have  been  derived  from  the 
representation  of  England.  These  facts  show,  moreover, 
the  nature  of  the  stake  which  the  United  States  had  in 
that  Eastern  war,  an  interest  quite  difi'erent  from  what 
many  seem  to  suppose.  They  demonstrate  a  cherished 
purpose  of  England  and  France  to  interfere,  not  with  Russia 
alone,  but  with  the  too  rapid  growth  even  of  America. 

The  English  Beview  pleases  itself  with  a  view  of  the  in- 
ternal weakness  of  Eussia  and  her  eminent  danger  of  being^ 
rent  asunder  by  domestic  strife.  Oliphant,  writing  in  1853,. 
dilates  largely,  and  with  evident  satisfaction,  upon  this- 
same  topic,  and  would  have  us  believe  that  the  whole 
power  of  the  Czar  is  needed  to  protect  his  throne  against 
the  discontents  and  threatened  uprisings  of  his  owa 
subjects: 

"  But  the  Eussian  Autocrat  is  also  keenly  alive  to  the- 
critical  position  of  matters  at  home.  Before  he  decides 
upon  prolonging  indefinitely  a  hazardous  contest,  he  will 
consider  the  present  aspect  of  the  internal  condition  of  the- 
empire  as  attentively  as  its  external  relations.  He  can  not 
not  forget  that  an  extent  of  territory  comprising  one-half 
of  what  is  now  called  Eussia  in  Europe,  has  been  annexed 
within  the  last  sixty  years — that,  consequently,  more  than 
half  of  the  European  inhabitants  of  the  empire,  having  been 
recently  subjugated,  are  more  or  less  disafiected;  that  of 
these,  sixteen  millions,  or  about  one-fourth  of  the  entire  population- 
15 


226         KUSSIA  CONTROLLED  BY  ONE  RACE; 

of  Hussiay  do  not  profess  the  Greek  faith ;  that  his  Moham- 
medan subjects  alone  amount  to  two  millions  and  a  half; 
and  that  the  protection  of  the  Greek  religion  has  been  pro- 
claimed as  the  ground  upon  which  the  present  anti-Mo- 
hammedan crusade  was  commenced. 

"  Such  is  the  present  condition  of  those  provinces  which 
compose  the  European  frontier  of  this  vast  empire.  From 
the  Baltic  to  the  Black  Sea — from  the  shores  of  the  Danube 
to  the  banks  of  the  Phasis — extends  an  indissoluble  bond 
of  common  sympathy — a  deep-rooted  hatred  of  Russia, 
which  nothing  less  than  the  dread  of  incurring  the  ven- 
geance of  a  despotism  almost  omnipotent  could  have  re- 
strained so  long;  and  when  at  last  the  auspicious  time 
arrives  for  giving  vent  to  this  feeling,  the  flame  will  kindle 
wildly  in  the  recently-acquired  kingdom  of  Poland,  for 
there  the  revolutionary  spark  has  never  been  extinguished. 
It  is  true  that  in  the  southern  provinces  of  the  empire  all 
hope  of  freedom  has  long  disappeared,  and  terror  and  op- 
pression have  reigned  so  long  that  the  inhabitants  of  the 
thinly-populated  steppe  have  lost  much  of  the  energy  of 
their  Mongolian  ancestors  ;  but  while  they  may  hesitate  to 
start  at  once  into  open  rebellion,  they  will  not  fail  to  use 
measures  of  passive  resistance,  as  a  means  of  opposing  the 
designs  of  Russia.  Opportunities  will  not  be  wanting  to 
insure  some  degree  of  success.  When  the  presence  of  the 
allied  fleets  in  the  Black  Sea  denies  to  the  Czar  transport 
for  his  troops  from  the  ports  upon  its  margin,  in  any  one 
direction,  divisions  of  the  Russian  army  will  often  be  com- 
pelled to  march  across  the  inhospitable  steppes  of  the  south ; 
:and  here,  dependent  for  food  and  transport  upon  whatever 
a  barren  and  thinly-populated  country  can  supply,  it  is 
probable  that  they  will  find  their  wants  altogether  disre- 
garded. The  Tartars  have  only  to  remove  their  families 
and  their  cattle  out  of  the  line  of  march  to  render  the  on- 
ward progress  of  the  army  a  matter  of  the  utmost  difficulty, 
if  not  altogether  impossible  ;  and  thus  they  will  be  able  to 
gratify  at  the  same  time  their  natural  hatred  to  the  Rus- 
sians, and  their  no  less  natural  desire  of  retaining  possession 


THIS   GIVES  HER  A  TE0E  NATIONAL  LIFE.  227 

of  their  own  flocks  and  herds.  Even  this  dejected  race 
might  be  stimulated  to  more  active  measures  by  the  presence 
upon  their  coasts  of  an  overwhelming  fleet  hostile  to  Russia. 
It  is  impossible  to  foretell  what  the  result  may  be  of  so 
novel  a  contingency.  It  rests  with  his  Imperial  Majesty  to 
decide  whether  it  will  ever  arise ;  but  whatever  weight  he 
may  attach  to  these  considerations,  and  whatever  may  be 
the  conclusion  at  which  he  may  ultimately  arrive,  the  facts, 
in  so  far  as  they  illustrate  the  present  internal  condition 
of  the  empire,  are  important ;  for  if,  on  the  one  hand,  they 
combine  to  form  any  of  the  grounds  upon  which  Russia 
may  ever  be  induced  to  acquiesce  in  conditions  proposed  by 
the  Allied  Powers  of  Europe,  a  due  appreciation  of  the 
difficulties  by  which  he  is  surrounded,  and  which  have  com- 
pelled her  to  pursue  a  course  so  repugnant  to  Muscovite 
pride,  must  materially  influence  those  upon  whom  the  im- 
portant task  devolves  of  framing  terms,  the  nature  of  which 
will  depend  in  some  measure  upon  the  relative  physical 
and  moral  condition  of  the  hostile  countries.  But  if,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  attitude  of  Europe  remains  such  that 
the  Czar  does  not  shrink  from  hazarding  a  war  which  must 
test  the  inmost  resources  of  his  empire,  then  it  is  well  for 
the  Powers  who  are  engaged  in  the  struggle  to  know  what 
those  resources  are,  lest,  measuring  them  only  by  a  standard 
provided  by  Russia,  and  judging  of  their  value  by  reports 
which  emanate  from  a  source  totally  unworthy  of  credit, 
they  forget  that,  when  the  different  elements  of  which  the 
nation  is  composed  are  incohesive  as  sand,  the  extent  of  a 
country  which  comprises  scattered  populations  of  various 
kindreds,  differing  in  faith,  habits,  and  interests,  is  really  its 
weakness." 

These  quotations  and  statements  may  serve  to  show  the 
spirit  of  those  who  have  for  the  most  part  been  our  teachers 
in  regard  to  the  character  and  resources  of  Russia ;  they 
may  aid  in  guarding  ourselves  against  prejudices  derived 
from  such  sources,  and  prepare  us  at  least  to  do  justice  to 


228 


Russia  by  a  calm,  independent,  and  candid  study  of  her 
actual  condition  and  policy. 

From  what  has  already  been  stated,  it  is  evident  that  the 
Muscovite  empire  must  be  one  of  immense  strength,  if  in 
connection  with  its  other  advantages  its  destinies  are  in  the 
hands  of  one  dominant  race,  whose  social  affinities  are  strong 
enough  to  produce  one  compact  national  unity,  and  if  this 
race  possesses  an  individuality  of  character  which  will  not 
prevent  it  from  being  absorbed  by  any  contiguous  families, 
but  which  forbids  even  any  essential  modification.  The 
case  will  be  all  the  stronger  if  such  a  race  is  found  to  possess 
a  vigor  that  displaces  that  with  which  it  comes  in  contact. 
The  power  which  such  a  social  unity  imparts  to  a  nation, 
the  tenacity  of  that  national  life  of  which  it  is  the  source, 
is  well  illustrated  by  the  example  of  the  Jews,  who  not  only 
preserved  through  fifteen  hundred  years  a  clearly-defined 
national  individuality,  but  are  still,  after  ages  of  dispersion 
and  oppression,  distinguished  by  their  national  character- 
istics. The  unexampled  prosperity  of  America,  and  the 
compactness  and  efficiency  of  her  national  power,  are  owing 
mainly  to  the  fact  that  her  population  has  sprung  princi- 
pally from  a  single  root,  which  is  covering  the  land  with 
the  vigorous  shoots  of  one  family  tree,  and  the  best  guaranty 
for  the  future  which  our  country  now  presents  is  the  newly- 
awakened  determination  to  preserve  our  national  charac- 
teristics, and  perpetuate  our  individual  national  life.  Still 
the  proportion  of  the  population  of  the  United  States  which 
has  descended  from  a  single  race  is  much  smaller  than  it  is 
in  Eussia.  For  although  the  number  of  foreign-born  may 
not  exceed  two  and  a  half  millions,  there  are  many  more 
than  this  who  are  not  of  Anglo-Saxon  parentage. 

The  total  population  of  Russia  is  diflerently  estimated, 
even  by  those  who  are  considered  to  be  the  best  authorities. 
Mr.  Hassel's  tables   give  the  number  of  inhabitants  in 

1823,  as 59,263,700 

Malte  Brun  believes  this  to  be  somewhat  exag- 
gerated, and  estimates  the  number  in  1827, 
at  -  -  -  -  .  -        59,000,000 


THIS   GIVES   HER  A  TRUE  NATIONAL  LIFE.  229 

The  London  Quarterly,  for  April,  1854,  states, 
upon  what  it  declares  to  be  good  authority, 
the  present  population  to  be  -        -        70,000,000 

Alison  estimates  it,  in  1840,  at     -        -        -        60,000,000 
and  states  the  annual  increase  at  near  one 
million   of   souls,  which    would   give    now 

nearly 75,000,000 

If  we  take   Hassel's  tables  as  the  basis,  and 
reckon  according  to  the  conceded  rate  of  in- 
crease, the  present  population  of  the  empire 
will  appear  to  be  about    -        -        -        -        93,000,000 
If  we  adopt  Malte  Brun's  estimate,  the  present 

number  would  reach  about  -  -  -  90,000,000 
The  calculation  made  by  the  English  Eeviewer  is,  it  appears, 
very  considerably  below  the  estimates  which  other  good 
authorities  have  supplied,  and  in  the  present  condition  of 
things,  and  the  known  temper  of  English  writers  in  regard 
to  Russia,  we  may  safely  assume  the  possibility  at  least  of 
an  under-estimate  of  the  population  of  the  empire.  The 
mean  of  the  four  estimates  given  above  is  a  little  more 
than  80,000,000.  But  because  the  classification  which  is 
found  in  the  tables  of  the  Quarterly  makes  it  convenient  to 
follow  them,  they  will  be  mainly  adopted,  though  the  evi- 
dence seems  conclusive  that  the  number  of  inhabitants  is 
greater  than  the  reviewer  has  stated,  and  the  subject  de- 
mands a  further  examination. 

According  to  this  English  authority,  of  the  seventy  mil- 
lions now  in  the  Eussian  empire  fifty-eight  millions  belong 
to  the  Sarmatian  race,  of  which  fifty-six  millions  are  of  the 
Sclavonic  branch,  and  forty-nine  millions  of  these  are 
Russians. 

Here,  as  is  seen,  are  fifty-eight  millions  belonging  to  one 
race,  fifty-six  millions  that  have  sprung  from  one  branch  of 
that  race,  and,  as  we  learn  from  authority  quite  as  good  as 
the  English  Review,  fifty  millions  bound  together  by  all 
the  ties  of  one  family  connection.  IN'owhere  else  in  Chris- 
tendom can  be  found  such  a  mighty,  compact  national  unity 
as  this.      We  may  well  illustrate  it  by  supposing  the 


2S0  RUSSIA  CONTROLLED  BY  ONE  RACE; 

population  of  the  United  States  to  be  seventy  millions, 
composed  of  native  Americans,  fifty  millions ;  of  English- 
men, eight  millions  ;  and  of  all  other  races  twelve  millions. 
In  such  a  case,  it  would  at  once  be  seen  that  the  central 
dominant  power  would  not  only  control  but  absorb  the 
rest.  The  absurdity  of  all  prophesies  of  the  separation  of 
such  a  nation  on  account  of  difference  of  race  would  at  once 
appear. 

But,  in  estimating  this  feature  of  the  strength  of  Eussia, 
another  important  circumstance  should  not  be  overlooked. 
The  Russian  race  proper  occupy,  geographically,  the  heart 
of  the  country,  while  the  tribes  which  belong  to  the  other 
races  are  distributed  along  the  frontier.  They  are,  there- 
fore, both  from  position  and  from  character,  incapable  of  a 
combination  among  themselves,  and  are,  moreover,  under 
the  full  influence  of  the  assimilating  power  of  the  dominant 
race.  By  this  influence,  directed  by  the  steady  policy  of 
Russia,  the  Finnish  tribes  have  been  almost  completely 
transformed.  Russia  seeks  everywhere  not  merely  to  an- 
nex, but  to  engraft  and  assimilate.  She  strives  to  diffuse 
everywhere  the  central  Russian  life,  and  to  mold  all  that 
she  gains  into  one  homogeneous  national  body.  That 
policy  which  now  brings  out  so  wide  and  hearty  an  approval 
from  the  American  nation  has  been  long  and  steadily  pur-  l 
sued  by  Russia,  and  with  marked  success.  She  has  strength- 
ened, by  all  methods  within  reach,  a  Russian  sentiment — 
an  attachment  to  the  soil  and  to  the  national  religion,  a 
national  pride,  a  national  ambition.  The  vigorous  pulsa- 
tions of  the  national  heart  are  felt  at  the  remotest  extremity 
and  the  universal  tendency  is  the  substitution  of  the  one 
Russian  life  for  the  individual  life  of  the  separate  tribes  of 
the  frontiers,  and  there  is  a  gradual  melting  of  these  indi- 
vidualities into  the  one  national  life. 

The  native  Russian  holds  the  same  relation  to  the  other 
inhabitants  of  the  empire  that  the  native  Americans  do  to 
the  other  population  of  the  United  States.  The  active, 
energetic,  "  pushing"  man  everywhere  in  the  country  is  the 
native  Russian.    For  him  others  make  room.    The  Russian 


THIS   GIVES   HER   A   TRUE   NATIONAL   LIFE.  231 

may  be  properly  called  the  Yankee  of  the  East.  By  no 
means  exhibiting  now  the  lofty  qualities  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  mind,  there  is  yet  in  him  a  true  life,  whose  power 
and  destiny  can  not  as  yet  be  accurately  measured.  One 
might  unite  an  American  idiom  with  a  Russian  phrase,  and 
say  that  the  Russian  is  "bound"  to  ''find  out  something J^ 
The  man  whom  the  Americans  call  "  shiftless"  the  Russians 
describe  as  "  one  who  can  find  nothing  out."  This  may 
be  regarded  as  indicating  a  national  characteristic,  an  un- 
mistakable sign  which  points  to  future  destiny.  Fifty 
millions  of  people  who  are  intent  upon  "  finding  something 
out"  are  not  likely  to  play  a  secondary  part  in  the  afiPairs 
of  Europe,  while  yet  expanding  with  a  vigorous  life,  and 
with  an  almost  unlimited  territory  still  unoccupied,  abound- 
ing with  the  sources  of  national  wealth  and  power. 

It  ill  becomes  any  of  the  Powers  of  western  Europe, 
and  least  of  all,  England,  to  predict  a  dissolution  of  the 
Russian  empire  because  her  population  is  composed  of  a 
variety  of  races,  when  a  comparison  is  instituted  between 
her  situation  and  theirs.  In  Great  Britain  are  only  about 
nineteen  millions  of  Englishmen  out  of  thirty  millions  of 
inhabitants,  and  in  France  are  but  thirty-two  m'llions  of 
Frenchmen  out  of  about  thirty-six  millions  of  inhabitants. 
Austria,  it  is  said,  has  with  her  Germans  some  seventeen 
millions  of  Sclavonians,  while  in  Russia  are  no  less  than 
fifty  millions  that  present  an  almost  complete  family  iden- 
tity, nearly  forty  millions  of  whom  speak  exactly  the  same 
language,  from  the  highest  in  society  to  the  lowest.  Such 
a  social  unity  is  presented  in  no  other  spot  among  civilized 
nations,  and  it  forms  an  element  of  power,  whether  for 
defense  or  ofifensive  war,  which,  with  the  aids  of  an  appro- 
priate civilization,  would  be  perfectly  irresistible.  What 
the  characteristics  of  Russian  civilization  really  are,  and 
what  promise  it  gives  for  the  future,  is  a  question  which 
will  be  considered  hereafter. 

This  immense  mass  is  not  only  bound  together  by  family 
ties,  not  only  speaks  one  language,  but  the  uniformity  of  a 
single   national   household  prevails   in  the  manners   and 


232  RUSSIA  CONTROLLED  BY  ONE  RACE; 

customs,  including  even  dress,  among  nearly  forty  millions  of 
the  people,  manifesting  one  great  Russian  nationality.  To 
these  interlacing  bonds  must  be  added  another,  stronger 
than  them  all,  that  of  a  common  religion,  which  has  a  deep 
hold  upon  the  national  mind,  because  with  the  Russian 
people  the  age  of  faith  has  not  yet  passed  away.  The 
skepticism  of  western  Europe  has,  as  yet,  exerted  little  in- 
fluence upon  Russia.  The  doctrines  of  the  church  are  to 
the  mass  of  the  people  solemn  verities,  and  in  the  religious 
ceremonies  there  is  to  them,  as  yet,  a  solemn  meaning. 
Bigotry  and  superstition  doubtless,  to  a  great  extent  pre- 
vail ;  but  as  an  element  of  power,  as  well  as  a  basis  of 
national  life,  a  deep,  sincere,  though  misguided  religious 
sentiment,  is  far  superior  to  the  infidelity  of  France  or  Ger- 
many :  a  skepticism  indeed,  which  almost  universally  now 
underlies  the  forms  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  As  a 
bond  of  union,  and  as  an  exciting  cause  whereby  to  arouse  a 
national  enthusiasm,  and  knit  a  people  into  one  firmly  com- 
pacted body,  the  religion  of  Russia  bears  some  resemblance 
to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  the  days  of  its  strength 
and  vigor.  Russia  is  capable  of  being  aroused  and  mad- 
dened for  a  religious  war;  and  the  course  of  the  govern- 
ment now  shows  most  clearly  that  it  fully  understands,  and 
is  prepared  to  use,  this  truly  terrific  power.  Another  tie 
which  unites  in  one  the  great  Russian  family,  is  an  attach- 
ment to  the  soil,  or  rather,  as  the  distinction  is  properly 
made  by  Haxthausen,  an  ardent  patriotism ;  and  this  idea 
perhaps,  has  never  been  so  well  expressed  elsewhere,  as  by 
him  in  the  following  extract  from  his  work  : 

"  Their  country,  the  country  of  their  ancestors,  the  Holy 
Russia,  the  people  fraternally  united  under  the  scepter  of 
the  Czar,  the  communion  of  faith,  the  ancient  and  sacred 
monuments  of  the  realm,  the  tombs  of  their  forefathers — • 
all  form  a  whole  which  excites  and  enraptures  the  mind  of 
the  Russian.  They  consider  their  country  as  a  sort  of  kins- 
man ship,  to  which  they  address  the  terms  of  familiar  endear- 
ment.    God,  the  Czar,  and  the  priest,  are  all  called  Father, 


THIS   GIVES   HER  A  TRUE  NATIONAL  LIFE.  233 

the  Church  is  their  Mother,  and  the  Empire  is  always 
called  Holy  Mother  Russia.  The  Capital  of  the  Empire  is 
Holy  Mother  Moscow,  and  the  Volga,  Mother  Volga.  Even 
the  high  road  from  Moscow  to  Vladimir  is  called  '  Our 
dear  Mother  the  high  road  to  Vladimir.'  But  above  all, 
Moscow,  the  Holy  Mother  of  the  land,  is  the  center  of  Eus- 
sian  history  and  tradition,  to  which  all  the  inhabitants  of 
the  empire  devote  their  love  and  veneration.  Every  Rus- 
sian entertains  all  his  life  long  the  desire  to  visit  one  day 
the  great  City,  to  see  the  towers  of  its  holy  churches,  and 
to  pray  on  the  tombs  of  the  patron  saints  of  Russia.  Mother 
Moscow  has  always  suffered  and  given  her  blood  for  Russia, 
as  all  the  Russian  people  are  ready  to  do  for  her." 

If  Baron  Haxthausen,  whose  book  is  admitted  to  be  the 
best  extant  on  Russia,  has  not  painted  this  picture  in  colors 
somewhat  too  warm,  then  the  civilized  world  has  cause  to 
regard  Russia  with  the  liveliest  interest.  Fifty  millions  of 
people  animated  by  such  a  spirit  are  capable  either  of  bless- 
ing or  cursing  the  world,  to  an  extent  to  which  history 
probably  can  furnish  no  parallel ;  because  this  tremendous 
power,  thus  treasured  as  it  is  in  fifty  millions  of  hearts — a 
spiritual  force — ^has  at  its  disposal  all  means  of  destruction 
or  defense  that  are  known  to  modern  war.  Such  a  people 
may  not  possess  the  impulsiveness  of  the  French  soldier, 
which  hurls  him  like  a  shot  on  his  foe ;  they  may  not  be  equal 
in  individual  prowess  to  the  English,  but  there  is  a  self- 
sustaining  power  of  endurance  that  exhausts  and  wears  out 
its  enemy,  that  clings  obstinately  to  its  purposes,  rising 
afresh  from  every  defeat,  prepared  for,  and  undertaking  or 
resisting  a  new  attack.  This  patriotism,  that  suffers  all 
things  sooner  than  permit  an  invader  to  rest  securely  on 
their  soil,  this  spirit  that  waits  and  watches,  and  suffers 
long,  until  its  opportunity  shall  come,  has  been  manifested 
too  often  to  be  doubted  any  longer.  "When  Russia  has  been 
reported  through  all  Europe  as  beaten  continually,  in  battle 
after  battle,  when  all  the  nations  are  summoned  to  exult 
over  her  ruins,  then  the  issue  has  ever  been  the  overthrow 


234         RUSSIA  CONTROLLED  BY  ONE  RACE; 

of  her  adversary.  The  Russians  have  thus  far  in  the  end 
shaken  every  invader  from  them,  and  made  reprisals  upon 
their  foe. 

The  grand  army  of  I^apoleon  fell  before  this  inextin- 
guishable love  of  country,  which  preferred  the  sacrifice  of 
all  rather  than  endure  the  presence,  on  their  own  soil^  of 
foreign  troops,  and  despisers  of  their  religion ;  to  which 
the  ruins  and  ashes  of  Smolensko  and  Moscow  were  a  less 
mournful  sight  than  a  hostile  army  trampling  on  their  con- 
secrated places  and  the  graves  of  their  fathers.  It  is 
perhaps  consoling  to  French  and  English  feelings  to  devise 
hard  names  for  such  a  spirit,  to  call  it  fanaticism,  bigotry, 
superstition,  etc.;  but  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that,  not- 
withstanding this  gift  of  hateful  epithets,  its  qualities  re- 
main the  same,  its  power  is  undiminished,  and  the  soldiers 
stand  as  steadily  to  their  guns,  and  throw  their  shot  and 
shell  with  an  aim  as  fatally  accurate,  as  if  they  had  applied 
to  them  terms  of  admiration  and  endearment.  The  char- 
acteristics of  the  Russian  people,  their  determination  to 
defend  their  country  to  the  last,  are  not  to  be  changed  by 
bitter  language,  or  by  railing  at  the  Czar  as  a  bigot,  or 
coward,  or  hypocrite,  or  fanatic,  or  unmanly  rejoicing  at 
the  news  of  his  death.  Still  another  element  which  serves 
to  produce  a  national  unity  in  Russia,  the  influence  of  which 
is  likely  to  extend  far  beyond  the  present  limits  of  her 
dominions,  is  a  national  vanity  and  a  world-wide  ambition, 
which  no  one  can  approve  of,  and  a  traditionary  belief  that 
the  Sclavonian  race  is  yet  to  rule  the  world.  Every  Russian, 
it  is  said,  high  and  low,  entertains  the  undoubted  opinion, 
that  his  race  will  yet  control  the  destinies  of  the  nations, 
and  regards  all  events  as  only  sweeping  on  toward  this 
ultimate  end.  This  may  be  condemned  or  ridiculed  as 
mere  vanity,  as  an  absurdity,  demanding  no  serious  atten- 
tion ;  and  yet  it  is  a  fact,  and  in  connection  with  other 
things  it  becomes  an  important  fact,  not  to  be  disregarded 
in  the  calculation  by  which  we  would  measure  the  power 
and  determine  the  future  of  Russia.  Though  we  may  be 
disposed  to  reject  the  idea,   that  what   individuals   and 


THIS   GIVES   HER  A   TRUE   NATIONAL  LIFE.  235 

nations  perseveringly  believe  themselves  capable  of  they 
do  generally  accomplish,  this  national  characteristic  must 
not  be  forgotten  as  a  chief  element  of  national  power. 

The  misleading  character  of  most  of  the  statements  concern- 
ing Russia  is  clearly  seen  in  the  light  of  these  facts.  I^oth- 
ing  could  be  further  from  the  truth  than  to  represent  this  em- 
pire as  unwieldy  and  inefficient,  as  a  mass  of  crude  material 
cohering  so  slightly  as  to  be  in  perpetual  danger  of  falling 
into  fragments,  or  of  being  rent  asunder  by  internal  dis- 
sension. Those  who  thus  represent  the  Muscovite  nation 
either  know  nothing  of  the  real  Eussian,  and  are  painting 
the  creature  of  their  dreams,  or  for  special  purposes  they 
studiously  misrepresent.  The  central  homogeneous  mass 
of  Russia,  its  compact  and  vigorous  nationality,  as  com- 
pared with  the  various  tribes  that  skirt  its  wide  frontier, 
may  be  regarded  as  a  mighty  continent  with  a  fringe  of 
islands  scattered  along  its  shores.  This  shows  also  how 
vain  are  all  expectations  that  the  death  of  a  Czar  will 
essentially  modify  the  settled  policy  of  the  Empire,  or 
endanger  its  peace.  Russia  has  evidently  entered  upon  a 
career  which  is  the  combined  result  of  her  geographical 
position,  the  nature  of  her  resources,  the  condition  of 
Europe,  her  national  religion,  and  the  genius  of  her  people. 
These  have  prescribed  for  her.  under  the  guidance  of  the 
God  of  nations,  a  national  mission,  which  the  west  of  Europe 
will  not  prevent  her  from  executing.  A  national  policy, 
with  its  general  features  very  clearly  defined,  has  become 
inwrought  in  the  public  mind  of  Russia,  and  that  policy 
will  not  be  suddenly  changed,  much  less  abandoned,  because 
the  characteristics  of  a  great  nation  can  not  be  at  once 
obliterated.  Although  the  character  of  him  who  wears  the 
crown  may  accelerate  or  retard  the  progress  of  such  a  nation, 
it  will,  under  any  leader,  still  move  onward  toward  its 
ultimate  goal.  Like  a  staunch  and  well-appointed  ship, 
with  a  competent  crew  united  in  the  determination  to  prose- 
cute a  definite  voyage,  that  pauses  not  even  though  its  com- 
mander dies,  so  the  national  career  of  fifty  millions  of  united 
people  belonging  to  one  family  will  not  be  abandoned  on 


236  RUSSIA  CONTROLLED  BY  ONE  RACE. 

account  of  the  loss  of  any  one  leader.  Her  national  unity 
is  capable  of  being  extended  safely  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific,  and  the  Powers  of  western  Europe  will  not  be  able 
to  arrest  even  her  southward  march  by  underrating  her 
strength  and  resources,  nor  by  sneers  at  her  barbarism,  her 
fanaticism,  or  her  despotism.  Her  barbarism  is  found 
strangely  connected  with  the  very  highest  military  science, 
her  fanaticism  appears  very  much  like  an  enthusiasm  for 
religion  and  country,  and  her  despotism  has  not  driven  the 
people  from  an  ardent  support  of  the  throne. 


OHARACTEE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  SOLDIERS.  237 


CHAPTER    XXII 


CHARACTER  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  SOLDIER. 

It  will  not,  perhaps,  be  uninteresting  to  the  American 
reader  to  look  at  a  few  short  passages  of  history,  in  which 
the  character  of  the  Russian  soldier  may  be  studied  on  the 
field,  and  as  it  was  almost  half  a  century  ago.  It  is  prob- 
able that  no  portion  of  Russian  history  presents  in  a  clearer 
manner  the  real  character  of  the  people,  and  the  qualities 
which  distinguish  her  army,  whether  soldiers  or  officers, 
than  the  record  of  the  French  expedition  to  Moscow.  A 
study  of  that  attack,  its  progress  and  results,  will  enable  us 
to  form  an  opinion  as  to  the  issue  of  any  future  assault  by 
the  Powers  of  western  Europe,  while,  at  the  same  time,  the 
capabilities  of  Russia,  and  her  national  characteristics,  will 
appear.  Whether  one  regards  the  unrivalled  qualities  of 
the  commander  of  that  expedition,  or  of  the  army  under 
his  command,  it  will  not  be  considered  probable  that  the 
ITorthern  Empire  will  again  be  compelled  to  meet  upon  her 
own  soil  so  formidable  a  foe,  while,  at  the  same  time,  its 
power  of  resistance  has  been  immensely  increased  since  the 
invasion  of  iN'apoleon. 

A  glance  at  a  few  of  the  chief  points  in  that  memorable 
attempt  at  the  subjugation  of  Russia,  can  not  be  without 
interest  in  the  present  crisis.    In,  the  first  place,  it  is 


238  CHARACTER  OP  THE   RUSSIAN  SOLDIER. 

necessary,  in  order  to  understand  wliat  the  Russians  really 
accomplished,  to  consider  the  relative  strength  of  the  oppos- 
ing Powers,  at  the  commencement  of  the  campaign.  The 
total  effective  force  with  which  Bonaparte  entered  the  Rus- 
sian territory,  as  quoted  by  Alison  from  the  imperial  muster 
rolls,  was  as  follows : 

Total  effective  force  which  entered  the  Russian  territory  :  Men,        -        647,158 

Horses, 187,111 

Total  number  of  cannon,  ---__>  1,372 

To  this  force  the  Russians  had  opposed  as  follows : 

Infantry.  Cavalry.  Artillery.  Cossacks. 

First  army  of  the  west,      -        -        111,194  20,434  12,985  9,000 

Second  army  of  the  west,        -             42,804  7,862  4,165  4,500 

Third  army  of  the  west,      -        -        34,996  9,852  3,185  4,500 


Grand  total. 

Infantry, 
Cavalry, 
Artillery, 
Cossacks, 

188,994 

SrUUABY. 

—                   • 

38,138 

m                         m 

20,335 

188,994 

38,138 

-    20,335 

18,000 

18,000 

Total,  -  -  .  -  265,467 

The  immense  disparity  of  the  forces  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  campaign  should  be  allowed  to  have  its  full 
weight  with  those  who  are  accustomed  to  think  of  the  Rus- 
sians as  being  driven  before  the  French  onward  to  Moscow. 
The  whole  French  army  was  647,158,  matched  against  a 
Russian  force  of  265,467 — less  than  one-half  the  number  of 
Napoleon's  troops.  The  French  cavalry  amounted  to 
96,579,  while  this  part  of  the  Russian  regular  force  was 
only  38,138,  and,  including  the  Cossacks,  amounted  to  but 
56,138.  Such  was  the  relative  force  of  the  combatants  when 
the  grand  army  entered  the  Russian  territory,  to  which 
must  be  added  the  matchless  ability  and  reputation  of  iN'a- 
paleon  himself.  The  state  of  the  Russian  people,  in  view 
of  this  overwhelming  assault  upon  their  country,  is  thus 
stated  by  Alison,  on  the  authority  of  Boutourlieu  :  "  The 
"intelligence  of  the  invasion,"  and  the  addresses  of  the 
Emperor,  "  excited  the  utmost  enthusiasm  in  the  people 
"  and  the  army.  It  was  not  mere  military  ardor,  or  the 
"  passion  for  conquest,  like  that  which  animated  the  French 


CHARACTER  OF   THE   RUSSIAN   SOLDIER.  239 

"  army,  but  a  deep-rooted  resolution  of  resistance,  founded 
"  on  the  feelings  of  patriotism  and  the  spirit  of  devotion. 

"Less  buoyant  at  first,  it  was  more  powerful  at  last; 
founded  on  the  contempt  for  life  it  remained  unshaken  by 
disaster,  unsubdued  by  defeat.  As  the  French  army  ad- 
vanced, and  the  dangers  of  Russia  increased,  it  augmented 
in  strength ;  and  while  the  ardor  of  the  invaders  was 
quenched  by  the  difficulty  of  their  enterprise,  the  spirit  of 
the  Russians  rose  with  the  sacrifices  which  their  situation 
required."  This  may  be  regarded  as  describing  a  perma- 
nent characteristic  of  the  Russian  nation ;  from  the  earliest 
period  of  their  history  to  the  siege  of  Sebastopol,  this 
long  endurance  and  gradual  but  sure  accumulation  of 
strength  to  surmount  an  obstacle,  has  been  conspicuous. 

In  the  two  first  inconsiderable  actions  of  this  war  of  in- 
vasion, the  French  were  defeated.  In  the  attempt  which 
followed  to  separate  two  divisions  of  the  Russian  army, 
Napoleon  was  out- maneuvered  by  the  Russian  generals, 
and  failed  to  accomplish  his  purpose — ^he,  however,  charg- 
ing the  blame  upon  his  brother  Jerome.  The  first  consid- 
erable battle  was  at  Mohilow,  a  strong  position  held  by  the 
French  Marshal  Davoust  with  thirty  thousand  men,  the 
difficult  defiles  of  the  forest  being  filled  with  artillery.  This 
strong  post  was  attacked  by  an  inferior  force  of  twenty 
thousand  Russians,  who  fought  for  hours  at  the  entrance 
of  the  defiles  in  a  perfect  storm  of  grape-shot  and  musket- 
balls,  and  then  retreated  in  good  order,  and  with  "  little 
molestation,"  the  loss  on  both  sides  being  nearly  equal — 
about  three  thousand  for  either  army.  The  object  of  !N"a- 
poleon  at  this  point  was  was  to  cut  off  Prince  Bagration's 
forces  from  the  other  divisions  of  the  Russian  army,  and, 
although  he  employed  for  this  purpose  two  armies  each  of 
which  was  as  powerful  as  the  Russian  division,  he  was  foiled 
in  the  attempt  The  Russian  general,  Barclay,  having 
assembled  eighty-two  thousand  men  at  Witeysk,  had  re- 
solved to  wait  the  attack  of  l^apoleon  at  the  head  of  one 
hundred  and  eighty  thousand,  and  Bonaparte  felt  himself 
sure  of  his  foe.    As  he  retired  on  the  night  of  the  expected 


240  CHAKACTER   OF   THE   RUSSIAN   SOLDIER. 

battle,  lie  said  to  Murat,  "  To-morrow,  at  ^ve,  the  sun  of 
Austerlitz."  The  two  armies  lay  facing  each  other,  their 
watch-fires  shining  on  each  other's  camps.  During  the 
night  the  Eussian  general  received  intelligence  that  decided 
him  to  alter  his  plan,  and  retreat  upon  Smolensko. 

The  manner  of  effecting  this  retreat  exhibited  not  only 
consummate  skill,  but  the  highest  state  of  discipline  in  the 
Russian  army.  To  break  up  a  regular  encampment  of 
eighty  thousand  men  is  not  a  small  matter  under  any  cir- 
cumstances, but  to  do  it  in  the  night,  almost  under  the  very 
eyes  of  a  watchful  enemy,  and  to  do  it  so  silently,  and  in 
such  perfect  order  as  not  to  awaken  even  a  suspicion  of 
what  was  being  done,  to  accomplish  the  object  so  perfectly 
that  at  day-break  when  Murat  went  forward  to  reconnoiter, 
not  a  man,  not  a  baggage-wagon,  not  a  weapon,  not  a  soli- 
tary straggler  out  of  eighty  thousand  men,  could  be  found ; 
this  evinced  a  skill  and  a  military  science  which  filled  the 
French  ofllcers  both  with  astonishment  and  mortification. 
There  was  in  such  movements  thus  executed  no  promise  of 
easy  victories.  The  advanced  guard  of  the  French  army 
sent  in  pursuit  were  unable  at  the  separation  of  the  roads 
of  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow  to  determine  which  an  army 
of  eighty  thousand  men  had  taken.  At  length,  when  the 
Russian  rear-guard  was  discovered  marching  in  perfect 
order  across  the  plain  toward  Smolensko,  it  was  attacked, 
but  the  assailing  party  was  utterly  destroyed. 

The  influence  of  the  religious  sentiment  upon  the  Russian 
people  is  well  exhibited  by  the  reliance  which  was  placed 
upon  it  by  the  Emperor,  in  rousing  the  nation  for  defense. 
The  language  of  his  address  was,  "  The  national  religion, 
"  the  throne,  the  State,  can  only  be  preserved  by  the  greatest 
"  sacrifices."  He  added  also  to  this  an  appeal  to  the  love 
of  race:  "Holy  clergy,  by  your  prayers  you  have  always 
"invoked  the  Divine  blessing  on  the  arms  of  Russia; 
"  people,  worthy  descendants  of  the  brave  Sclavonians,  often 
"have  you  broken  the  jaws  of  the  lions  which  were  opened 
"  to  devour  you.  Unite,  then,  with  the  cross  in  your  hearts, 
"  and  the  sword  in  your  hands,  and  no  human  power  shall 


CHARACTER   OF   THE  RUSSIAN   SOLDIER.  241 

"  prevail  against  you.''  The  result  showed  that  the  eniperor 
knew  his  people.  The  population  of  Moscow  voted  a  levy 
of  ten  men  in  the  hundred ;  the  merchants  agreed  to  arm 
them  at  their  own  expense;  they  agreed  to  a  jpro  rata  tax 
for  the  public  service,  and  then  made  an  additional  sub- 
scription of  nearly  one  million  of  dollars. 

The  attempts  which  have  been  made  by  some  European 
writers,  to  throw  discredit  upon  this  heroic  spirit  of  the 
Russian  people,  exhibit  neither  truthfulness  nor  generosity. 
They  have  been  represented  as  acting  only  through  the  in- 
fluence of  constraint  and  fear,  as  offering  to  make  sacrifices 
because  they  knew  that  otherwise  their  property  would  be 
wrested  from  them  by  a  relentless  government.  To  an  un- 
prejudiced mind,  one  willing  to  do  justice  even  to  an  adver- 
sary, every  feature  of  the  case  presents  an  unqualified  con- 
tradiction to  such  statements  as  these.  Every  step  of  the 
Russians  under  their  alarming  circumstances,  shows  not  a 
cold  reluctant  support  of  the  Emperor,  but  the  spontaneous 
movement  which  springs  from  the  glowing  heart.  The 
Czar  appealed  to  his  people  both  as  a  father  and  as  the 
head  of  the  State,  and  they  responded  with  the  affection  of 
children,  and  the  enthusiasm  of  patriots.  ITo  sacrifice  ap- 
peared to  them  great  or  unreasonable,  if  by  it  their  religion 
and  country  could  be  preserved.  It  reminds  one  of  the 
spirit  which  pervaded  our  own  country  in  the  time  of  the 
Revolution.  The  whole  power  of  the  empire  was  brought 
to  bear  upon  the  execution  of  a  single  purpose  to  rid  their 
soil  at  any  cost  of  the  presence  of  a  foe.  The  religious 
character  which  was  given  to  the  war,  the  deep  religious 
spirit  everywhere  excited  among  the  people,  of  whatever 
rank,  were  made  the  subjects  of  mirth  and  ridicule  in  the 
infidel  camp  of  the  French,  though  not  by  Bonaparte.  His 
knowledge  of  human  nature  was  far  too  profound  to  treat 
with  contempt  a  scene  which  excited  both  astonishment 
and  apprehension.  The  next  combat  in  this  contest  for 
power  and  conquest  on  the  one  hand,  and  for  home,  reli- 
gion, and  country  on  the  other,  was  one  in  which  twenty- 
five  thousand  Russians  were  opposed  to  twenty-seven 
16 


242  CHARACTER  OF   THE   RUSSIAN   SOLDIER. 

thousand  French,  and  the  French  were  defeated  with  a  loss 
of  four  thousand  men.  An  affair  which  soon  after  occurred 
while  both  armies  were  directing  their  march  upon  Smo- 
lensko,  will  show  how  little  occasion  there  is  for  sneers  at 
the  valor  of  the  Russian  soldier.  A  small  body  of  Russians 
consisting  only  of  six  thousand  infantry  and  twelve  hun- 
dred horse,  which  had  been  detached  for  a  particular  service 
from  the  main  army,  found  themselves  suddenly  surrounded 
by  eighteen  thousand  French  cavalry,  and  cut  off  from  all 
possibility  of  obtaining  assistance.  These  troops  were  new 
levies,  who  had  never  been  in  action.  The  Russian  general, 
!N^ewerofskoi,  determined  not  to  surrender,  even  under  such 
appalling  circumstances.  He  formed  his  little  company 
into  a  hollow  square,  and  commenced  his  retreat  across  the 
plains,  perfectly  open  as  they  were  to  the  operations  of  cav- 
alry, that  hemmed  him  in  on  all  sides  by  this  dense  squad- 
ron. With  constantly-repeated  charges,  the  French  hurled 
themselves  upon  the  bristling  bayonets  with  a  headlong 
valor  equalled  only  by  the  steadiness  of  their  foe ;  some- 
times driven  back  by  the  constant  rolling  fire  blazing  on  all 
sides  of  the  square,  and  sometimes  bursting  through  the 
closed  ranks,  dashing  their  horses  into  the  centre  of  the 
living  masses  only  to  be  slain  or  driven  back,  the  ever- 
diminishing  number  of  the  Russians  still  moving  on,  and 
still  closing  up  their  ranks  and  presenting  again  an  un- 
broken outer  line  of  men  and  steel.  Forty  times  during  the 
day  did  the  French  cavalry  charge  that  Russian  square, 
and  as  many  times  were  they  driven  back,  until  at  night- 
fall l^ewerofskoi  extricated  himself  entirely,  though  with 
the  loss  of  more  than  a  thousand  men.  The  manner  in 
which  the  choicest  troops  of  Wellington  withstood  the  re- 
peated charges  of  the  imperial  guard  at  Waterloo  has  been 
the  theme  of  many  a  warm  and  just  eulogium,  but  it  was 
fully  equaled  by  the  unflinching  bravery  of  these  Russian 
raw  recruits,  exposed  through  the  whole  day  in  the  open 
plains  to  nearly  three  times  their  number  of  the  veteran 
cavalry  of  France.  It  surely  is  unwise,  to  say  the  least,  to 
speak  slightingly  of  the  military  character  of  a  people  that 


CHARACTER   OP   THE   RUSSIAN   SOLDIER.  248 

can  supply  soldiers  such  as  these.  Such  articles  as  within  the 
year  1854  have  appeared  in  some  of  the  leading  British  Re- 
views and  Journals,  whose  object  is  to  disparage  the  Russian 
army,  to  represent  the  Russians  as  a  nation  of  traders  and  me- 
chanics, and  essentially  unwarlike,  to  prove  that  most  of  her 
distinguished  generals  are  and  have  been  foreigners,  that 
the  walls  of  her  fortifications  are  ready  to  tumble  down,  that 
the  Russian  fleet  is  most  unseaworthy,  with  other  similar 
statements,  are  far  more  dishonorable  to  the  English  than 
the  Russian  name.  The  noblest  and  the  best  of  England 
are  superior  to  such  studied  detraction,  but  when  writers — 
who  are  seeking  both  popularity  and  remuneration  from 
the  British  public,  pursue  this  course,  the  only  rational  in- 
ference is,  that  they  believe  that  such  sentiments  will  be 
agreeable  to  the  public  sentiment  of  England,  that  they  will 
meet  and  gratify  the  wishes  of  the  people.  By  a  similar 
course  toward  America,  as  impolitic  as  it  was  unjust,  Eng- 
land created  in  the  American  heart  dislike  and  resentment 
which  half  a  century  has  not  removed.  The  wanton  injury 
which  English  journalists  are  inflicting  upon  the  feelings 
of  the  Russians  will  yet  recoil  upon  her,  it  may  be  feared, 
in  the  hour  of  her  great  need.  Had  England,  during 
the  trials  of  our  early  career,  shown  toward  the  United 
States  a  magnanimous  spirit,  it  would  have  bound  us  to  her 
by  ties  of  sympathy  which  would  have  made  the  two  nations 
one.  She  chose  instead  to  gratify  her  pride  by  scorn  and 
ridicule,  and  she  has  already  met  her  reward  in  the  mortifi- 
cation and  disappointment  with  which  she  perceives  the 
lack  of  American  sympathy. 

The  next  great  event  in  the  march  of  the  French  army 
was  the  battle  at  Smolensko.  The  fortifications  of  this  an- 
cient city  bore  no  resemblance  to  those  modern  defenses 
within  which  Russia  has  now  entrenched  herself.  An  old 
but  massive  wall  surrounded  it,  but  this  had  only  the  arm- 
ament of  fifty  old  guns,  in  bad  condition,  and  without  car- 
riages. A  citadel  of  modern  construction  was  yet  incapable 
of  proper  defense,  having,  like  all  the  works  of  the  town, 
been  neglected  in  this  interior  spot,  where  no  enemy  had 


244  CHARACTER   OF   THE   RUSSIAN   SOLDIER. 

been  expected.  The  town,  indeed,  was  no  longer  of  any 
consequence  among  the  defenses  of  the  modern  empire, 
though  it  once  occupied  an  important  position.  The  first 
attack  at  Smolensko  was  by  Marshal  IS'ey  upon  the  citadel, 
from  which  he  was  promptly  repulsed  with  great  loss.  In 
the  meantime,  the  main  body  of  the  Russian  army  hastened 
to  the  relief  of  the  city,  which  at  first  was  held  by  only 
nineteen  thousand  Russians.  But  after  entering  the  city, 
it  was  resolved  by  the  Eussian  general  not  to  hazard  a 
general  battle,  when  a  defeat  might  cut  him  off  from  sup- 
plies, and  he  began  a  retreat  toward  Moscow,  leaving  thirty 
thousand  men  as  a  rear  guard  to  hold  Smolensko,  and  thus 
cover  his  retreat.  The  Russian  commander  had  placed  a 
stream  between  himself  and  the  main  army  of  the  French, 
which  ]^apoleon  in  vain  endeavored  to  ford  when  he  saw 
the  retiring  columns,  and  then,  as  a  last  resource,  ordered 
a  general  assault  upon  Smolensko.  Napoleon  here  com- 
manded in  person.  He  had  at  his  disposal  about  two  hun- 
dred thousand  men  and  ^ve  hundred  pieces  of  cannon.  Of 
these,  seventy  thousand  were  led  against  the  walls  defended 
by  thirty  thousand  Russians,  who  had  now  placed  two 
hundred  pieces  of  heavy  cannon  upon  the  ramparts.  The 
French  army  fought  under  the  eye  of  l^apoleon,  with  their 
accustomed  enthusiasm.  Preceded  by  a  heavy  artillery 
force,  they  advanced  unwaveringly  under  the  terrible  fire 
from  the  ramparts,  and  were  wrapped  in  the  sheets  of  flame 
that  burst  from  the  walls.  After  an  obstinate  ^battle  they 
forced  themselves  within  the  suburbs,  and  then  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  pieces  of  artillery  were  brought  to  bear  upon 
the  walls  at  point  blank  range.  But,  notwithstanding,  they 
were  foiled  in  every  effort,  and  at  evening  Bonaparte  was 
obliged  to  draw  off'  his  troops  with  a  loss  of  fifteen  thousand 
men.  The  French  howitzers  had  set  fire  to  a  part  of  the 
city  during  the  day ;  the  remaining  portion  was  fired  by 
the  Russians  in  the  night ;  the  magazines  were  destroyed, 
and  tbe  Russian  army,  with  its  wounded  and  a  great  part 
of  the  inhabitants,  withdrew  before  morning,  leaving  only 


CHARACTER  OP  THE   RUSSIAN   SOLDIER.  245 

ashes  and  ruin  behind  them — ^beginning  a  work  that  was 
completed  at  Moscow. 

The  two  armies  next  met  at  Yalentina,  where  was  the 
rear  guard  of  the  Russian  army,  under  Touczoff.  A  small 
stream  divided  the  combatants  who  first  engaged.  The 
French  first  drove  the  Russians  from  their  position,  and 
forced  them  across  the  rivulet.  But  when  they  crossed  in 
pursuit,  they  were  themselves  defeated,  and  driven  back 
over  the  stream.  In  the  course  of  the  day  thirty-five  thou- 
sand French  were  opposed  to  twenty- five  thousand  Rus- 
sians, and  at  the  close  of  the  battle  the  Russians  remained 
masters  of  their  position,  and  had  lost  six  thousand  men, 
while  the  French  loss  amounted  to  eight  thousand.  Such 
was  the  conduct  of  Russian  armies  up  to  the  bloody  battle 
of  Borodino. 

In  the  campaign,  thus  far,  there  is  certainly  little  occasion 
for  sneers  at  the  Russian  people  as  an  unwarlike  nation,  or 
at  the  ability  or  conduct  of  their  generals.  Every  strate- 
gical maneuver  on  the  part  of  J^apoleon  was  met  by  a 
promptitude  and  skill  quite  equal  to  his  own,  and  history 
does  not  show  a  more  admirable  instance  of  the  display  of 
military  science  and  discipline  than  was  exhibited  in  the 
manner  in  which  the  Russian  forces  retreated  towards  Mos- 
cow. Every  efibrt  of  the  army  was  nobly  seconded  by  the 
inhabitants.  Cities,  villages,  mills,  stores  of  provisions — 
whatever  could,  by  any  possibility,  give  aid  or  shelter  to 
the  invading  host,  was  unhesitatingly  destroyed.  An  en- 
thusiastic attachment  to  their  country  which  nothing  could 
shake,  which  prepared  them  for  any  sacrifice  and  any  efibrt — 
indignation  at  the  presence  of  an  enemy  on  their  native 
soil — such  feelings  pervaded  all  ranks,  and  fired  every 
heart. 

Under  these  circumstances  a  marked  national  character- 
istic was  exhibited.  Thoroughly  aroused,  almost  maddened, 
as  the  heart  of  Russia  was,  there  were  no  rash  counsels,  no 
hasty,  impetuous  action.  Instead  of  risking  all  in  one  great 
efifort,  when  failure  would  have  been  ruin,  the  army  of  ]^a- 
poleon  was  subjected  to  a  long,  slow,  but  certain  process  of 


246  CHARACTER  OF   THE   RUSSIAN  SOLDIER. 

exhaustion,  by  which  it  was  wisely  foreseen  that  his  de- 
struction, though  longer  delayed,  would  be  certain  and 
complete  in  the  end.  With  this  general  policy  decided 
upon  impatience  was  restrained,  and  they  watched  and 
waited  the  time  when  the  host  of  Bonaparte  should  be  so 
reduced  as  no  longer  to  be  an  overmatch  for  themselves. 
The  name  of  ISTapoleon  was  a  terror  ever^^where ;  it  had  of 
itself  a  power  to  overmatch  thousands  of  men,  and  the  Rus- 
sian generals  may  well  be  excused  for  being  even  somewhat 
over-cautious  in  meeting  such  an  enemy.  But  the  Russian 
commander,  after  retreating  as  far  as  Borodino,  felt  that 
unless  a  blow  should  now  be  struck  in  defense  of  Moscow, 
that  the  spirit  of  the  whole  nation  would  be  depressed,  for 
Moscow  was  regarded  as  the  Mother  of  the  Empire,  and 
every  Russian  heart  beat  with  strong  affection  for  the  Holy 
City.  Kutosoff  felt  that  a  defeat  would  be  less  disastrous 
than  a  refusal  to  meet  the  enemy. 

The  battle  of  Borodino  was  one  of  the  most  bloody,  as 
well  as  among  the  most  important  conflicts  of  modern 
times,  and  exhibits  the  qualities  of  a  Russian  army  when 
engaged  on  the  grandest  scale  of  modern  war.  It  will  serve 
to  prepare  us  to  estimate  aright  the  defensive  power  of 
Russia.  To  all  human  wisdom,  it  seemed  as  if  on  the  field 
of  Borodino  not  only  the  fate  of  Russia  but  of  Europe  might 
be  decided.  The  defeat  of  the  Russians  would  open  the 
road  to  Moscow,  and  once  in  the  mag^nificent  Capital  of  the 
Old  Empire  of  Muscovy,  Bonaparte  supposed  that  he  should 
be  absolutely  secure,  and  that  the  Emperor  and  his  nation 
would  be  prostrate  at  his  feet.  The  two  armies  were  in 
numbers  nearly  of  equal  strength,  each  numbering  about 
one  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  men.  But  ten  thousand 
of  the  Russian  troops  were  fresh  recruits  who  had  never 
seen  a  battle,  and  seven  thousand  were  Cossacks.  The 
French  force  were  therefore  really  superior ;  besides,  they 
had  thirty  thousand  cavalry,  the  finest  in  Europe,  and  this 
gave  them  an  immense  advantage.  The  Russians  were 
superior  in  the  number  of  their  artillery  by  some  fifty  pieces^ 


CHARACTER   OF   THE   RUSSIAN   SOLDIER.  247 

and  they  also  occupied  a  strong  position,  and  had  the  ad- 
vantage of  awaiting  an  attack. 

This  position  may  be  made  intelligible  in  its  general  fea- 
tures, if  the  reader  conceives  a  strong  redoubt  in  front  of 
the  center  of  the  Russian  lines,  in  the  rear  of  this  a  second 
and  much  larger  redoubt,  called  the  Great  Redoubt ;  then 
in  the  rear  of  this,  crowning  several  eminences,  stretched 
the  long  lines  of  the  main  army — all  these  heights  as  well 
as  the  redoubts  being  defended  by  artillery.  Opposed  to 
this  Russian  force  was  the  greatest  commander  of  his  age, 
whose  reputation  alone  had  in  it  the  power  of  an  army, 
and  at  his  command  troops  unsurpassed  by  any  in  Europe, 
in  courage,  experience  and  skill,  led  on  by  officers  who  had 
scarcely  known  defeat  in  any  great  battle.  Whatever 
talent,  reputation,  science,  skill,  or  courage  could  supply, 
the  French  army  undoubtedly  possessed,  and  these  must 
be  considered  in  estimating  the  results  of  the  conflict. 

Toward  evening,  on  the  day  preceding  the  decisive 
struggle,  an  attack  was  made  on  the  smaller  redoubt  in 
front,  which  was  defended  by  ten  thousand  men  and  twelve 
pieces  of  artillery.  This  attack  was  led  by  Murat,  at  the 
head  of  a  very  heavy  body  of  cavalry,  attended  by  two 
divisions  of  infantry  correspondingly  strong.  The  French 
artillery  as  they  advanced  poured  a  storm  of  grape- shot  into 
the  redoubt,  while  the  ranks  of  the  assailing  columns  were 
momentarily  thinned  by  the  answering  fire  from  the  Rus- 
sian guns,  until  the  attacking  party  stood  within  sixty  feet 
of  the  redoubt.  There  for  a  time  each  gave  and  received 
a  destructive  fire  of  musketry,  till  finally,  by  an  impetuous 
charge,  such  as  few  but  French  soldiers  are  crpable  of,  the 
Russians  were  driven  from  their  intrenchment,  and  the  re- 
doubt was  taken  and  partly  filled  with  French  troops.  But 
in  a  moment  more,  the  tide  of  battle  rolled  resistlessly  back, 
those  within  the  redoubt  were  utterly  destroyed,  and  once 
more  it  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Russians.  Another  gallant 
charge  and  the  Russians  were  hurled  back  agaiu,  and  masses 
of  the  French  once  more  filled  the  space  within  its  low 
walls,  but  still  again  the  returning  Russians  came  like  an 


248  CHARACTER  OF   THE   RUSSIAN   SOLDIER. 

avalanche  and  swept  their  foes  away,  and  the  eagles  of  the 
Czar  waved  once  more  above  the  bloody  spot. 

Three  times  thus  that  outpost  was  taken  and  retaken, 
until  in  the  evening  it  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  French, 
and  after  this  desperate  struggle  the  first  point  was  hardly 
won.  On  the  following  day  the  same  skill,  courage,  and 
impetuosity  in  attack,  and  the  same  obstinate  valor  in  de- 
fense was  displayed  by  two  hundred  and  sixty  thousand 
men,  with  more  than  twelve  hundred  cannon.  Whatever 
Napoleon  could  accomplish  with  troops  worthy  of  such  a 
commander  was  done;  and  as  the  result  of  one  of  the 
bloodiest  fights  the  world  has  ever  seen  in  civilized  war, 
the  French  army  had  twelve  thousand  killed,  and  thirty- 
eight  thousand  wounded — fifty  thousand  in  all ;  while  the 
Russians  had  fifteen  thousand  killed,  and  thirty  thousand 
wounded — ^forty-five  thousand  in  all — and  two  thousand 
more  had  been  taken  prisoners. 

At  the  close  of  the  action  the  Russian  army  was  entrenched 
in  a  new  position,  stronger  than  that  from  which  the  French 
had  driven  them,  and  Napoleon  drew  ofl?  his  forces  from 
the  battle-field.  Neither  army  was  in  a  condition  to  renew 
the  battle,  and  the  Russian  commander  deemed  it  prudent 
to  sacrifice  Moscow  rather  than  risk  another  engagement 
before  receiving  reinforcements.  Bonaparte  entered  Mos- 
cow only  to  see  a  city  of  three  hundred  thousand  inhabi- 
tants, first  utterly  deserted  and  silent  as  a  city  of  the  dead, 
and  then  blazing,  as  the  funeral  pyre  of  his  hopes,  then 
ashes  and  ruin,  as  his  hopes  were  doomed  to  be.  Kutosoff 
threw  his  army  between  Moscow  and  all  supplies,  while, 
from  the  rich  provinces  in  his  rear  his  own  troops  were 
refreshed,  and  from  all  sides  reinforcements  were  continu- 
ally pouring  in. 

It  is  needless  to  pursue  the  history  of  this  campaign. 
The  object  for  which  these  few  incidents  have  been  intro- 
duced is  accomplished.  In  a  few  weeks  more  the  grand 
army  was  annihilated,  and  scarce  an  individual  of  that 
mighty  invading  host  remained  on  the  soil  of  Russia.  Such 
a  vengeance  had  been  taken  as  causes  men's  ears  even  now 


CHARACTER   OF   THE   RUSSIAN   SOLDIER.  249 

to  tingle  with  the  recital.  The  facts  here  presented  have 
been  mainly  derived  from  the  most  reliable  sources  of  in- 
formation, such  as  the  most  candid  of  English  historians, 
so  far  as  Russia  is  concerned,  deemed  to  be  authentic.  They 
present  a  picture  of  the  character  of  Russian  soldiers  which 
it  would  be  well  for  any  nation,  however  powerful,  to  con- 
sider, before  entertaining  high  hopes  of  crushing  a  Russian 
army  with  ease,  under  any  circumstances  whatever.  They 
should  bring  a  blush  to  the  cheek  of  any  man  who  utters 
a  scoff  at  Russian  courage  or  efficiency.  In  all  the  history 
of  the  world  there  is  not  a  story  of  a  more  enthusiastic 
devotion  to  country,  or  of  a  more  heroic  defense,  nor  of 
one  more  skillfully  conducted.  The  Russian  conduct  of  the 
campaign  was  in  the  main  admirably  suited  to  their  cir- 
cumstances, and  its  ultimate  and  complete  success  justifies 
the  foresight  with  which  it  was  planned,  and  adds  lustre  to 
the  skill  with  which  it  was  conducted. 

Such  an  army,  whether  we  consider  its  numbers,  its  equip- 
ments, its  experience,  its  commander,  or  its  general  officers, 
can  not  now  be  led  against  Russia  by  her  present  antago- 
nists, while  she,  according  to  the  conceded  rate  of  her 
growth,  must  have  increased  her  population  since  1812  by 
at  least  two-thirds  of  what  it  then  was,  while,  at  the  same 
time,  she  has  been  perfecting  herself  in  the  science  of  war, 
as  the  fatal  superiority  of  her  artillery  at  Sebastopol  has 
abundantly  proved.  These  facts,  taken  in  connection  with 
the  events  of  the  Crimean  war,  are  quite  sufficient  to  indi- 
cate the  probable  results  of  any  invasion  of  the  soil  of 
Russia.  The  combat  with  a  Russian  army,  and  especially 
a  conflict  with  the  empire,  as  a  whole,  has  ever  been  a  de- 
ceitful one.  The  manner  of  resistance  which  is  assumed, 
partly  by  the  force  of  the  national  characteristics,  and  partly 
because  they  rely  much  upon  the  aid  which  the  nature  of 
the  country  affords  them,  wears  the  appearance  in  the  first 
stages  of  the  conflict  of  inaction  or  timidity,  sometimes 
even  of  continued  defeat.  Bonaparte  seemed  to  be  driving 
the  Russian  forces  like  sheep  before  him  on  his  march  to 
Moscow,  and  yet  he  could  never  break  the  perfect  order  of 


250  CHARACTER   OF   THE   RUSSIAN   SOLDIER. 

their  retreat,  even  with  the  matchless  cavalry  which  he 
commanded,  nor  could  he  succeed,  in  a  single  maneuver, 
by  which  to  separate  the  divisions  of  their  army  or  pre- 
vent a  junction,  or  to  cut  them  off  from  supplies.  On  the 
other  hand,  he  found  himself  imprisoned  and  starving 
in  Moscow,  and  then  not  only  compelled  to  retreat,  but  to 
march  back  along  the  very  desert  that  his  army  had  made  in 
its  advance,  and  thus,  and  by  successive  actions,  where  either 
nothing  was  gained  or  victory  was  purchased  at  too  great 
a  cost,  his  army  was  annihilated,  and  he  transformed  into  a 
solitary  fugitive  fleeing  for  life. 

In  like  manner  we  heard  of  uninterrupted  successes  both 
by  the  Turks  and  the  Allies  at  the  commencement  of  the 
Crimean  war.  The  Allied  troops  could  hardly  obtain  an 
opportunity  to  show  their  valor,  the  enemy  was  so  easily, 
even  disgracefully  beaten,  and  the  English  people  were 
busying  themselves  with  the  question  what  should  be  done 
with  Sebastopol  and  the  Crimea — how  this  Russian  posses- 
sion and  the  other  should  be  disposed  of — soberly  making 
a  new  map  of  Europe,  and  declaring  what  they  would  and 
would  not  accept  or  offer  as  terms  of  peace,  and  endeavor- 
ing to  decide  how  much  humiliation  Russia  would  safely 
bear,  when  at  once  they  find  the  whole  force  of  France, 
England  and  Turkey,  arrested  effectually  before  a  single 
fortress,  around  which  most  of  those  splendid  troops  that 
originally  landed  in  the  Crimea  are  now  lying  in  their 
graves.  The  most  extravagant  accounts  of  the  new  engines 
of  destruction  carried  out  by  the  French  and  English 
armies  were  sent  round  the  world.  It  was  expected  that  a 
hostile  fleet  would  be  almost  instantaneously  destroyed  at  a 
distance  that  would  preclude  a  return  shot,  and  Lancaster 
guns  were  in  like  manner  to  batter  down  fortifications, 
themselves  entirely  out  of  the  reach  of  the  cannon  of  the 
fortress. 

Instead  of  all  this,  it  has  been  stated  by  English  writers 
that  the  first  siege  batteries  opened  by  the  French  were 
silenced  by  the  Russian  guns  in  three  hours,  and  their 
whole  artillery  proved  itself  superior,  both  in  construction 


CHARACTER  OF   THE   RUSSIAN   SOLDIER.  251 

and  in  the  manner  in  whicli  the  guns  were  served.  A  re- 
sistance which  sustains  itself  indefinitely,  which  becomes 
more  formidable  as  a  campaign  advances,  and  which  wears 
out  its  foe  and  overwhelms  him  in  the  end,  is  the  charac- 
teristic of  Russian  war  when  their  own  soil  is  invaded. 
The  world,  however,  is  informed  that  the  sudden  setting  in 
of  winter  and  the  destruction  of  Moscow  were  the  causes 
of  the  ruin  of  Napoleon's  army,  that  frost  and  snow,  and 
not  Russian  skill  or  weapons,  were  its  destroyers.  But  a 
candid  examination,  not  of  partizan  statements  or  of  elabo- 
rate eulogies  of  Bonaparte,  will  show  that  his  destruction 
in  Russia  was  inevitable  aside  from  these  causes.  The 
people  that  burned  Moscow  were  equally  prepared  for  any 
other  similar  sacrifice,  and  Napoleon  was  expelled  from 
Russia  because  the  nation  was  resolved  that  cost  what  it 
might,  he  should  be  forced  back  across  their  frontier  or  be 
destroyed. 

The  following  observation  of  the  elegant  English  histo- 
rian who  has  had  the  courage  and  magnanimity  to  present 
facts  in  regard  to  Russia  will  exhibit  this  matter  in  its  true 
light.  "When  Bonaparte  commenced  his  retreat,  the  Rus- 
sian commander  first  by  a  most  skillful  maneuver  forced 
him  back  along  the  path  which  he  had  made  a  desert  in 
his  advance,  while  at  the  same  time  the  Russian  army  pur- 
sued him  not  in  the  rear,  but  on  a  parallel  line  of  march y 
through  a  district  abounding  with  supplies.  Upon  this 
Alison  remarks  as  follows  : 

"  Justice  requires  that  due  credit  should  be  given  to  the 
Russian  mode  of  pursuit,  by  a  parallel  march,  a  measure 
which  was  unquestionably  one  of  the  greatest  military 
achievements  of  the  last  age.  Had  Kutosoff  pursued  by 
the  same  road  as  the  French,  his  army,  moving  in  a  line 
wasted  by  the  triple  curse  of  three  previous  marches,  would 
have  melted  away  more  rapidly  than  his  enemy's.  Had  he 
hazarded  a  serious  engagement  before  the  French  were 
completely  broken  by  their  sufferings,  his  own  loss  would 
have  probably  been  so  severe  as  to  have  disabled  him  from 


252  CHARACTER  OP  THE  RUSSIAN  SOLDIER. 

taking  advantage  of  theirs.  Despair  rapidly  restores  the 
courage  of  an  army ;  a  disorderly  crowd  of  stragglers  often 
resume  the  strictest  military  order,  and  are  capable  of 
the  greatest  efforts  when  the  animation  of  a  battle  is  at 
hand. 

"  The  passage  of  the  Beresina,  the  battle  of  Corunna,  the 
victory  of  Hanan,  are  not  required  to  demonstrate  this  im- 
portant truth.  Well  knowing  that  a  continued  retreat 
would  of  itself  weaken  his  enemies,  the  Russian  general 
maneuvered  in  such  a  manner  as  with  hardly  any  loss  to 
himself  to  make  prisoners  of  above  half  their  army,  and 
that  at  a  time  when  the  storms  of  winter  were  making  as 
great  ravages  in  his  own  troops  as  in  those  of  his  antago- 
nists. Had  he  not  pursued  at  all,  [N'apoleon  would  have 
halted  at  Smolensko,  and  soon  repaired  his  disasters ;  had 
he  fought  a  pitched  battle  with  him  on  the  road,  his  army, 
already  grievously  weakened  by  the  cold,  would  have 
probably  been  rendered  incapable  of  pursuing  him  to  the 
frontier. 

"  By  acting  a  bolder  part  he  might  have  gained  a  more 
brilliant,  but  he  could  not  have  secured  such  everlasting 
success  ;  he  would  have  risked  the  fate  of  the  empire,  which 
hung  on  the  preservation  of  his  army ;  he  might  have  ac- 
quired the  title  of  conqueror  of  ]N"apoleon,  but  he  would 
not  have  deserved  that  of  savior  of  his  country.  But  it 
would  have  been  in  vain  that  all  these  advantages  lay  within 
the  reach  of  Eussia,  had  their  constancy  and  firmness  not 
enabled  her  people  to  grasp  them.  Justice  has  not  hitherto 
been  done  to  the  heroism  of  their  conduct.  We  admire 
the  Athenians  who  refused  to  treat  with  Xerxes  after  the 
sack,  of  their  city,  and  the  Romans  who  sent  troops  to 
Spain  after  the  Battle  of  Connse  ;  what  then  shall  we  say 
of  the  general  who,  while  his  army  was  yet  reeking  with 
the  slaughter  of  Borodino,  formed  the  project  of  enveloping 
the  invader  in  the  capital  which  he  had  conquered  ?  what 
of  the  citizens  who  fired  their  palaces  and  their  temples  lest 
they  should  furnish  even  a  temporary  refuge  to  the  invader  ? 
and  what  of  the  Sovereign  who,  undismayed  by  the  fires  of 


CHARACTER  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  SOLDIER.        253 

Moscow,  announced  to  his  people  in  the  moment  of  their 
greatest  agony  his  resolution  never  to  submit ;  and  foretold 
the  approaching  deliverance  of  his  country  and  the  world? 
Time,  the  great  sanctifier  of  events,  has  not  yet  lent  its  halo 
to  these  sacrifices ;  separate  interest  have  arisen ;  the  terror 
of  Russia  has  come  in  place  of  the  jealousy  of  IRapoleon, 
and  those  who  have  gained  most  by  the  heroism  of  their 
Allies  are  too  much  influenced  by  momentary  considerations 
to  acknowledge  it.  But  when  these  fears  and  jealouses 
shall  have  passed  away,  and  the  pageant  of  Eussian,  like 
that  of  French  ascendancy,  shall  have  disappeared,  the  im- 
partial voice  of  posterity  will  pronounce  that  the  history 
of  the  world  does  not  afford  an  example  of  equal  moral 
grandeur.'' 

There  is  one  remark  in  the  foregoing  extract  which  is 
worthy  of  special  attention ;  that  those  who  have  gained 
most  by  the  heroism  of  Russia  in  breaking  the  power  of 
Bonaparte,  have  been  since  unwilling  to  acknowledge  it. 
Had  l^apoleon  not  been  checked  in  Russia,  that  threatened 
French  invasion  of  England  might  long  since  have  become 
to  her  a  very  sorrowful  reality,  and  it  ill  becomes  her  now 
to  speak  in  terms  of  scorn  and  disparagement  of  that  gal- 
lant people,  who  at  such  a  fearful  cost  interposed  itself  be- 
tween Bonaparte  and  the  rest  of  Europe. 

But  it  is  insisted  by  English  writers,  that  however  for- 
midable Russia  may  be  at  home,  aided  by  the  defenses  of 
her  climate  and  country,  she  is  incapable  of  maintaining  an 
army  abroad,  and  of  carrying  on  successfully  an  offensive 
war.  "We  are  told  of  the  total  inefficiency  of  her  commis- 
sariat, and  of  the  immense  losses  which  her  armies  sustain, 
and  we  are  pointed  to  the  campaigns  in  the  Caucasus,  and 
latterly  to  the  unsuccessful  siege  of  Silistria,  as  proofs  of 
inefficiency  and  unskillfalness.  More  than  one  point  here 
is  worthy  of  consideration.  In  the  first  place,  will  the  oper- 
ations of  the  Russian  army  abroad  compare  unfavorably 
with  those  of  England  herself,  even  when  England  has  the 
command  of  the  sea,  and  the  means  of  transport.    Has  a 


254  CHARACTER   OF   THE   RUSSIAN   SOLDIER. 

Russian  army  often  suffered  more  from  the  want  of  order, 
skill,  and  efficiency  in  every  department,  than  the  English 
army  in  the  Crimea,  if  their  own  witnesses  are  to  be  cred- 
ited ?  Has  any  campaign  in  the  Caucasus  been  more  dis- 
astrous or  ineffectual  than  the  efforts  of  the  Allied  troops  ? 
Russia  need  not  shrink  from  a  comparison  with  those  who 
affect  to  despise  her. 

But  again,  if  the  whole  time  of  the  foreign  operations  of 
Russia  is  considered,  where  has  she  been  successfully  and 
permanently  driven  back  ?  On  all  sides,  her  frontier  has 
been  continually  extended,  and  at  what  point  has  she 
failed  to  maintain  herself?  She  has  been  driven  back,  it 
is  triumphantly  said,  from  the  principalities,  across  the 
Danube,  across  the  Pruth.  But  the  end  is  not  yet.  Will 
she  remain  there  ?  A  question  which  her  past  history 
perhaps  will  answer  more  correctly  than  present  temporary 
appearances. 

Again,  it  is  not  in  accordance  with  the  genius  or  policy 
of  Russia  to  make  aggressive  war  for  the  sake  of  extensive 
and  sudden  conquest.  It  is  by  no  means  necessary  for  her 
to  do  this  in  order  to  become  a  great  military  Power.  She 
need  not  attempt  to  march  her  armies  over  the  prostrate 
thrones  of  Europe  after  the  manner  of  Bonaparte ;  this  is 
not  her  mission — not  thus  is  her  ultimate  position  to  be 
won.  It  is  only  necessary  for  her  to  possess  and  wield  with 
skill  sufficient  military  power  to  defend  herself  against  the 
combined  assault  of  western  Europe,  and  then,  under  God, 
her  future  is  secure.  She  requires  only  the  means  of  pro- 
tecting her  natural  growth.  "Within  certain  limits  she 
intends  to  displace  or  control  all.  It  is  in  this  point  of 
view,  and  with  this  purpose  of  hers  before  the  mind,  that 
the  military  capacities  of  that  great  Empire  are  to  be 
studied.  She  is  not  to  be  extended  simply  or  mainly 
by  conquest  alone,  by  the  direct  application  of  military 
power  to  the  acquisition  of  territory.  Her  vast  military 
resources  are  demanded  to  protect  her  growth,  to  shield 
her  from  foreign  aggression.  As  an  attacking  force 
pushes  its  columns  forward,  under  the  cover  of  its  guns, 


CHAEACTBR  OP  THE   RUSSIAN   SOLDIER.  255 

80  Russia  grows  out  on  eveii^  side  with  continuous  enlarge- 
ment, under  the  cover  of  her  military  power.  Eehind 
her  fortifications,  and  the  lines  of  her  army,  within  her 
impregnable  home,  she  cherishes  and  makes  strong  her 
interior  life,  that  swells  ever  outward  by  a  resistless 
vigor. 


256  THE  AKMT  AND  NAVY  OF  EUSST* 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 


THE  ARMY  AND  NAVY  OP  RUSSIA. 

Having  in  the  preceding  chapter  presented  some  facts 
and  statements  which  show  the  real  character  and  capa- 
bihties  of  the  soldiers  of  the  ISTorthern  Empire,  it  becomes 
important  to  inquire  how  many  such  soldiers  a  Russian 
Emperor  can  command  for  offensive  or  defensive  war.  Cer- 
tainly her  military  power  must  be  regarded  as  of  the  most 
imposing  character,  if  the  number  of  effective  soldiers  is  in 
the  usual  proportion  to  the  population  of  the  country;  if 
they  are  well  armed  and  disciplined;  if  the  munitions  of 
war  are  abundant,  and  of  suitable  quality ;  and  if  stores 
and  troops  can  be  readily  transported,  and  accumulated  at 
points  where  they  are  required.  These  points  will  be  the 
subjects  of  investigation  in  the  present  chapter,- to  which 
will  be  added  also  an  account  of  the  size,  position,  and  con- 
dition of  the  Russian  I^avy.  It  is  by  no  means  an  easy 
matter  to  ascertain,  even  with  an  approximation  to  accuracy, 
the  actual  military  force  of  the  Muscovite  nation.  While, 
on  her  part,  national  pride  and  ambition  would  lead  her 
to  present  to  the  world  an  imposing  array,  on  the  contrary, 
those  who  fear  or  dislike  her  find  their  interest,  as  they 
think,  in  reducing  as  far  as  possible  by  all  manner  of  deduc- 
tions, the  published  statements  of  the  condition  of  her 


THE  ARMY  i^ND  NAVY  OF  RUSSIA.  257 

military  establishment,  and  after  reducing  thus  her  armies 
within  reasonable  limits  they  proceed  to  show,  either  that 
it  can  not  be  supported  in  the  field,  or  that  its  different 
corps  are  so  widely  separated  that  they  can  not  be  concen- 
trated upon  any  single  point ;  and  again,  that  the  vast  ex- 
tent of  territory  to  be  defended  absorbs  in  its  protection  a 
large  part  of  the  available  force  of  the  empire.  It  is  also 
asserted  that  the  state  of  the  country  is  such  as  to  render 
the  transport  of  large  bodies  of  troops  from  point  to  point 
exceedingly  difficult — indeed,  almost  impossible. 

These  statements  are  founded  rather  on  the  past  than 
the  present  condition  of  the  Eussian  Empire,  and,  though 
not  wholly  without  foundation,  must  be  received  with  due 
caution,  when  we  remember  under  what  strong  temptations 
those  who  control  the  press  of  western  Europe  now  are  to 
underrate  the  power  of  their  formidable  antagonist,  and  to 
vail  somewhat  from  the  people  the  actual  condition  of 
things.  By  a  comparison  of  the  various  estimates  of  the 
population  of  Russia,  it  would  appear  that  her  numbers  are 
nearly  or  not  quite  equal  to  those  of  France,  England,  and 
Austria. 

So  far,  then,  as  mere  numbers  are  concerned,  she  should 
be  able  to  present  a  military  array  nearly  or  quite  as  for- 
midable as  the  three  combined.  What  the  power  of  Russia 
was  in  1812,  when  the  immense  army  of  Bonaparte  was 
swept  away,  not  alone  by  frost  or  the  fires  of  Smolensko 
and  Moscow,  but  equally  by  the  courage  and  skill  of  the 
defenders  of  their  country,  is  now  a  matter  of  history,  and 
well  known  to  the  world.  Since  that  period  she  has  spared 
neither  effort  nor  money  in  augmenting  her  strength,  and 
giving  to  it  all  the  efficiency  which  can  be  derived  both 
from  science  and  discipline.  She  has  brought  to  her  aid 
both  European  and  American  skill  and  experience,  and 
has  been  steadily  and  silently  perfecting  her  army,  her  for- 
tifications, and  her  navy. 

Within  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  no  state  in  Europe 
has  augmented  its  forces  in  numbers  proportionate  to  the  in- 
crease of  Russia,  nor  has  any  other  Power  so  much  improved 
17 


258  THE  ARMY  AND  NAVY  OP  RUSSIA. 

the  quality  of  its  troops.  During  his  long  reign,  E'icholas 
applied  himself  with  unremitting  ardor  to  perfect  the  whole 
military  organization  of  the  empire.  Both  his  capacity 
and  his  resources  proved  fully  equal  to  the  task,  and,  while 
we  heard  only  of  the  poverty  of  Russia,  of  her  barbarism, 
of  the  inefficiency  of  every  department  of  the  public  service, 
of  the  corruption  of  her  officials,  and  the  system  of  pecu- 
lation and  fraud  everywhere  established,  she  has  built  and 
equipped  a  navy  which  places  her  in  the  foremost  rank  of 
naval  powers,  equalled  by  England,  France,  and  America, 
alone ;  she  has  established  arsenals  and  depots  of  wood  and 
other  military  stores,  unsurpassed,  to  say  the  least,  by  any ; 
her  fortifications  show  the  perfection  of  military  science ; 
her  military  schools  have  no  parallel  anywhere,  and  her 
army  is,  beyond  all  comparison,  the  most  formidable  in 
Europe,  taking  into  consideration  its  numbers,  its  dis- 
cipline, and  the  resources  from  which  its  losses  may  be 
repaired. 

The  support  of  such  a  vast  military  establishment  must 
press  heavily  upon  the  general  industry  of  the  nation  beyond 
all  doubt ;  military  despotism,  and  the  necessary  hardships 
of  a  soldier's  life,  are  constantly  doing  their  cruel  work, 
but  whether  this  burthen  presses  disproportionately  upon 
Russia,  as  compared  with  the  establishments  of  other 
nations  of  Europe,  does  not  yet  appear.  The  magnitude 
of  her  army  is  scarcely  beyond  the  due  proportion  of  her 
population,  as  compared  with  other  military  Powers,  while 
she  can  maintain  her  troops  at  home  at  less  expense  than 
any  other  nation  of  Europe.  The  cost  of  maintaining  a 
foot  soldier  in  the  different  armies  of  Europe  has  been 
estimated  as  follows  ;* 

Cost  of  a  foot  soldier  for  a  year  in  Russia, 
«  «  «  Austria, 

«  ^  «  «  Prussia, 

«  '  "  «  France, 

^  «  "  England,      - 

*  Marmont'8  Voyages. 


£. 

s. 

5 

00 

9 

8 

10 

00 

14 

6 

21 

14 

THE  ARMY  AND  NAVY  OF  RUSSIA.  269 

This  shows  an  immense  difference  in  favor  of  Russia, 
and  much  of  this  is  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  food  of  the 
common  people,  and  consequently  of  the  soldier,  is  abund- 
ant and  cheap.  A  late  German  writer,  Haxthausen,  de- 
scribes the  Russian  peasantry  as  physically  a  fine  race  of 
men,  generally,  indeed,  eating  meat  only  once  a  week,  but 
having  a  variety  of  other  food,  and  well  contented  with  it, 
comfortably  and  even  expensively  clothed.  This  proves 
that  the  small  cost  at  which  the  Russian  army  is  maintained 
is  owing,  not  to  their  being  ill-fed  and  scantily  clothed,  but 
because  the  means  of  supporting  life  with  comfort  are  easily 
obtained.  The  vast  extent  of  the  empire,  and  the  difficulty 
which  is  always  experienced  in  moving  large  bodies  of 
troops  by  land  from  point  to  point,  led  the  Emperor  Nich- 
olas to  the  adoption  of  two  very  important  measures,  one 
of  which  is  completed,  and  the  other  is  urged  forward  as 
rapidly  as  circumstances  allow.  The  first  was  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  whole  army  into  different  corps,  stationed  ac- 
cording to  the  geographical  character  of  the  country,  and 
where  they  would  be  needed  either  for  attack  or  defense. 

The  English  and  French  governments  would  probably 
have  avoided  their  mortifications  in  the  Crimea,  had  they 
possessed  themselves  of  reliable  information  concerning  the 
actual  strength  of  Russia,  the  character  of  her  defenses,  and 
the  condition  of  her  army.  By  stationing  it  at  the  different 
points  of  the  empire  where  it  will  be  needed  most  in  case 
of  attack,  Nicholas  obviated  to  a  great  extent  the  sudden 
movements  of  large  bodies  of  troops  when  the  late  war 
began.  His  force  was  ready  to  enter  the  Principalities, 
ready  to  defend  Sebastopol,  and  equally  prepared  to  cover 
St.  Petersburg  and  support  the  garrison  at  Cronstadt. 

But  a  measure  far  more  important  than  the  one  already 
mentioned,  having  a  bearing  upon  the  internal  comnierce 
and  general  •development  of  the  country's  resources,  as  well 
as  upon  the  transport  of  armies,  is  the  construction  of  a 
system  of  railways  already  begun,  and  which,  when  fin- 
ished, will  greatly  increase  the  military  efficiency  of  Rus- 
sia.   A  grand  trunk  line  is  already  in  operation  from  St. 


260  THE  ARMY  AND  NAVY  OF  KUSSIA. 

Petersburgh  to  Moscow,  about  four  hundred  miles,  and 
from  Moscow  to  Odessa  the  work  is  in  progress,  and  now 
nearly  finished.  These  two  lines  alone  through  the  heart 
of  the  empire,  crossing,  as  they  do,  so  many  navigable 
streams  on  which  steam  navigation  is  already  begun,  will 
enable  Kussia  to  transport  troops,  munitions  of  war,  and 
supplies  of  all  sorts,  with  great  facility  from  the  Baltic  to 
the  Elack  Sea,  and  between  her  southern  frontier  and  the 
extreme  north.  These  two  railways,  as  any  one  will  see  at 
a  glance  by  consulting  a  map,  would,  by  their  connections 
with  a  network  of  navigable  rivers  and  uniting  canals, 
command  almost  all  the  resources  of  the  Empire,  either  for 
the  Black  Sea  or  the  Baltic.  Indeed,  with  fleets  of  light 
steamers  on  all  her  navigable  streams,  she  possesses  means 
of  transport  from  and  through  every  portion  of  her  country, 
even  without  railways,  such  as  no  other  country  on  the 
eastern  continent  can  boast ;  and  those  who  believe  that  she 
will  yet  fail  from  inability  to  place  troops  and  supplies  at 
any  threatened  point  will  be  sorely  disappointed. 

But  the  world  is  constantly  reminded  of  the  poverty  of 
Hussia,  of  her  limited  revenue,  and  her  exhausted  treasury, 
and  that  therefore  she  can  not  maintain  her  military  estab- 
lishment in  an  efficient  position.  Those  who  favor  us  with 
such  statements  forget  that  the  achievement  of  the  Czar 
show  as  yet  no  evidence  of  want.  He  has  expended  money 
on  the  most  enlarged  scale  upon  every  public  project,  and 
everything  has  been  done  in  a  manner  which  France  and 
England  may  imitate  with  advantage.  Take  the  admitted 
fact  that  for  a  hundred  years  no  country  has  made  so  rapid 
a  progress  in  all  that  constitutes  a  great  nation  as  Russia ; 
that  her  population  doubles  in  about  fifty  years,  that  this 
is  not  caused  by  immigration,  but  is  mainly  caused  by  the 
natural  increase  of  the  people ;  and  add  to  this  that  in  the 
meantime  Moscow  has  been  rebuilt,  the  ravages  caused  by 
the  invasion  of  more  than  six  hundred  thousand  men  re- 
paired, one  of  the  most  magnificent  capitals  in  Europe  has 
been  created,  an  army  of  more  than  a  million  completely 
organized  and  fully  armed,  not  with  the  arms  of  barbarism, 


*niB  ARMY  AND   NAVY   OF  RUSSIA.  261 

but  with  the  most  formidable  weapons  of  destruction  knoivn 
to  modern  war,  that  a  first-class  navy  has  been  produced, 
and  fortifications  erected  which  have  defied  the  utmost 
strength  of  the  two  great  nations  of  western  Europe,  that 
at  the  same  time  long  lines  of  railway  are  constructed, 
schools  start  into  being,  manufactures  increase,  and  agricul- 
ture is  improved,  and  it  must  be  allowed  by  all  who  are 
capable  of  a  candid  judgment,  that  we  behold  on  all  sides 
'  evidences  of  prosperity  rather  than  of  ruin.  One  important 
fact  should  not  be  forgotten  in  this  connection.  It  has  been 
the  steady  policy  of  the  government  to  foster  to  the  utmost 
its  own  industry,  and  to  render  the  nation  independent  by 
a  self-sustaining  power. 

Of  the  actual  strength  and  resources  of  such  a  country 
it  is  difiicult  to  judge,  and  they  are  generally  underrated, 
and  especially  by  such  a  commercial  people  as  the  English. 
The  I^^orth  American  colonies  made  but  an  insignificant 
figure  in  the  world's  tables  of  wealth  and  power  when  each 
farmer  of  New  England  manufactured  for  himself  his  cloth- 
ing from  materials  raised  on  his  own  farm,  and  when  his 
food  was  produced  in  a  similar  manner;  but  when  England 
thought  to  crush  them  she  was  met  by  a  power  that  did 
jfcnot  appear  in  statistical  tables,  and  there  was  a  solid  and 
'available  wealth  in  our  country  that  commerce  could  take 
no  note  of,  and  which  was  sufficient  for  successful  defense. 
There  is  in  Russia  a  vast  amount  of  home  manufacture, 
of  home  strength  and  resources,  which  can  not  be  expressed 
by  figures,  and  which  does  not  appear  in  official  reports. 
In  such  a  state  of  society  there  is  power  which  does, not  lie 
on  the  surface.  The  condition  of  Hussia  can  be  more 
readily  understood  by  an  American  than  by  most  Euro- 
peans, for  a  similar  process  in  reclaiming  wild  lands,  and 
filling  up  a  new  country,  and  carrying  forward  improve- 
ments, is  going  on  there  as  here,  though  our  national  char- 
acter and  our  free  institutions  have  imparted  greater  vigor 
and  velocity  to  our  movement.  The  descriptions  of  the 
log-houses,  the    lines  of   unbroken    forests,  the  log,   or 


262  THE   ARMY  AND   NAVY   OF   RUSSIA. 

"  corduroy''  roads,  forcibly  remind  the  American  reader  of 
home  scenes. 

It  has  cost  our  "  transatlantic  cousins"  some  painful  ex- 
periments before  they  could  be  convinced  that  a  vigorous 
national  life,  a  substantial  and  most  formidable  national 
power,  could  clothe  itself  in  such  rude  forms,  having  only 
the  aspect  of  poverty  and  discomfort.  It  was  necessary  for 
them  to  receive  lessons  from  the  broadsides  of  our  "fir-built 
frigates,"  and  from  behind  earth  walls  and  cotton-bags,  be-' 
fore  they  could  comprehend  how  a  country  of  forests  and 
cabins,  and  log-roads,  and  mud-roads,  could  possibly  be  a 
powerful  country ;  how  troops  could  be  mustered,  or  fed, 
or  clothed,  or  paid,  or  transported.  Similar  mistakes  are 
evidently  made  in  regard  to  Russia,  and  they  may  be  cor- 
rected in  a  similar  manner. 

Again,  those  who  are  disposed  to  amuse  themselves  with 
the  poverty  of  the  IlTorthern  Empire,  should  not  forget  that 
the  gold-mines  of  the  Ural  are  for  Russia  what  California 
is  to  the  United  States — what  Australia  is  to  Great  Britain, 
and  that  the  produce  of  these  mines  is  to  a  great  extent 
under  the  control  of  the  government,  which  has  a  deposit 
of  treasure  of  its  own,  whose  amount  is  known  to  the  chief 
officers  of  the  realm  alone. 

A  country  capable  of  performing  such  things,  and  at  the 
same  time  preserving  a  rate  of  advance  beyond  that  of  her 
neighbors,  and  which  has  had  her  whole  military  establish- 
ment on  the  war  footing  since  1848,  w^as  not  likely  to  sink 
suddenly  from  exhaustion,  with  only  that  same  army  to 
support,  as  before,  on  her  own  soil.  Besides,  if  R-ussia  was 
so  soon  to  suffer  national  collapse,  with  but  a  slight  addition 
to  her  armies,  and  with  her  fleets  lying  in  her  docks,  what 
should  be  said  of  France  and  England,  with  their  common 
expenditures  vastly  increased,  maintaining  immense  fleets 
in  foreign  seas  w^hich  afforded  them  no  supplies,  and  vast 
armies,  far  from  home,  on  a  spot  where  nothing  could  be 
obtained  for  man  or  beast — armies  whose  diminished  ranks 
were  to  be  constantly  filled  up  by  fresh  drains  on  the  popu- 
lation at  home. 


THE  ARMY  AND  NAVY  OP  RUSSIA.  263 

These  statements  of  the  wretched  condition  of  the  Enssian 
army,  of  the  sufferings  and  privations  of  the  troops,  of  the 
terrible  ravages  of  disease,  of  the  inability  of  the  govern- 
ment to  sustain  its  establishment  on  a  respectable  footing, 
which  have  filled  English  and  French  books.  Quarterlies  and 
newspapers,  have  been  shown  to  have  originated  either  in 
utter  ignorance  of  the  facts,  or  in  the  vain  hope  of  in- 
creasing the  chances  of  success  by  a  deliberate  system  of 
detraction. 

The  Turkish  Empire,  withering  under  the  curse  of  God, 
tottering  near  the  goal  where  the  unerring  word  of  prophecy 
declares  that  it  must  fall,  was  exhibited  to  wondering  Europe 
and  America  as  a  nation  freshly  set  out  on  a  new  career  of 
civilization,  having  in  itself  a  recuperative  vital  energy, 
which  would  place  it  alongside  of  western  nations,  and  which 
might  be  able  soon  to  cope  single-handed  with  Eussia,  if  a 
little  help  were  offered  it  by  the  Allies,  while  the  Eussian 
forces  were  represented  as  flying  before  the  victorious  Turks 
without  the  courage  or  skill  to  meet  an  enemy  anywhere, 
and  the  only  complaint  was  that  victory  was  too  cheaply 
won,  and  then  these  journalists  sat  down  to  a  revision  of 
the  map  of  Europe  as  confidently  as  to  the  carving  of  a 
turkey  for  their  dinner.  The  folly  of  such  proceedings 
was  most  satisfactorily  shown,  in  a  manner  which  Eng- 
land and  France  will  have  cause  to  remember  through  long 
years.  It  is  now  evident  that  the  retreat  of  the  Eussian 
forces  from  the  Principalities  was  decided  upon  before  the 
failure  of  the  siege  of  Silistria,  and  was  determined  by  this 
event ;  that  the  Eussian  officers  foresaw  in  due  season  the 
real  plan  of  the  campaign  decided  upon  by  the  Allies,  and 
their  troops  were  therefore  withdrawn,  and  placed  in  a 
position  to  be  within  reach  of  Sebastopol. 

The  course  of  the  Eussian  army  there  was  in  perfect 
keeping  with  the  well-known  national  characteristics. 
Their  enemies  were  constantly  shouting  victory  and  pro- 
gress, but  at  the  same  time  they  were  being  exhausted,  and 
fresh  supplies  of  troops,  ammunition,  guns,  and  warlike 
stores  of  all  kinds  were  constantly  demanded  from  home. 


264  THE  ARMY  AND  NAVY  OF  RUSSIA. 

The  Muscovite  empire  exhibited  its  ancient  and  proverbial 
power  of  resistance,  united  with  a  science,  skill,  and  fer- 
tility of  invention  and  resources,  not  displayed  in  previous 
wars,  and  this  is  shown  by  the  testimony  of  those  before 
the  walls  of  Sebastopol.  The  result,  if  it  brings  no  lesson 
of  w^isdom  to  European  writers,  should  at  least  teach  Ame- 
ricans to  be  exceedingly  cautious  in  regard  to  testimony 
thus  furnished  against  Russia.  She  shows  by  her  course, 
that  she  is  expanding  by  a  vigorous  life,  and  the  character 
of  this  life,  and  the  relations  which  America  may  sustain 
to  its  future  developments,  should  become  for  us  a  matter 
of  earnest  consideration.  Giving  due  weight  to  the  most 
reliable  testimony  in  the  case,  it  seems  but  a  fair  conclusion 
that  the  statements  which  exhibit  the  Russian  army  as 
numbering  about  one  million,  are  open  only  to  such  com- 
mon reductions  as  would  be  made  in  estimating  the  military 
strength  of  any  other  European  Power,  and  that  in  deter- 
mining her  relative  power  a  force  of  a  million  may  be  taken 
&s  a  standard  nearly  correct. 


THE  NATIONAL  SENTIMENT  OF  BUSSIA.  265 


CHAPTER    XXIV 


THE  NATIONAL  SENTIMENT  OF  RUSSIA  AS  AFFECTING  NATIONAL  POLICY 

AND  DESTINY. 


One  of  the  most  suggestive  facts  taught  by  history  is, 
that  very  often  individuals  who  have  reached  positions  of 
commanding  influence  have  early  felt  a  consciousness  of 
their  powers,  and  have  apprehended  the  general  features  of 
their  allotted  task  ;  a  fact  which,  perhaps,  gave  rise  to  the 
remark  of  a  distinguished  English  writer,  that,  in  general, 
a  man's  aspirations  may  be  taken  as  the  measure  of  his 
capabilities.  The  remark  has  doubtless  truth  for  its  found- 
ation, though  it  must  be  received  only  with  important 
qualifications.  The  same  thing  is  true  of  some  nations 
w^hich  have  held  a  sovereign's  place  among  the  kingdoms 
of  the  world.  It  appears  that  in  some  manner,  none,  per- 
haps, can  tell  how,  a  national  sentiment  has  arisen  pointing 
to  some  specific  ultimate  destiny.  Its  beginnings  and  its 
progress  seem  removed  from  all  ordinary  causes,  till  a  well- 
defined  public  opinion  pervades  all  classes — becomes,  as  it 
were,  the  national  soul,  and  shapes  the  national  policy. 
And,  whatever  extravagance  human  pride  may  attach  to 
such  popular  convictions,  there  is  often  a  most  remarkable 
general  resemblance  between  such  national  anticipations 
and  the  results  actually  reached.  When  once  such  a  senti- 
ment has  been  established,  and  become  inwoven  with  the 


266  THE  NATIONAL    SENTIMENT   OF   RUSSIA 

national  faith — when  it  has  been  handed  down  as  a  tradi- 
tional belief  from  the  fathers — it  is  readily  seen  that  its 
power  is  almost  resistless.  It  shapes  all  national  action, 
because  the  national  mind  is  ever  reaching  out  for  the  ac- 
complishment of  destiny.  It  prompts  ever  to  effort,  at  the 
same  time  that  it  gives  to  power  a  definite  direction.  It 
sustains  the  courage  of  a  nation  under  the  severest  reverses, 
because  it  believes  that  a  superior  power  has  already  deter- 
mined its  ultimate  success.  It  is  national  faith  which,  as 
in  the  individual,  prompts  to  effort,  and  goes  far  to  make 
achievement  sure. 

The  doctrine  of  "  manifest  destiny"  may  not  be  dismissed 
with  a  sneer.  Faith  in  her  destiny  has  given  a  specific 
direction  to  the  national  energies  of  Great  Britain,  and  has 
made  her  so  long  mistress  both  of  the  seas  and  of  the  com- 
merce of  the  world.  Faith  in  destiny  rolled  the  fiery, 
bloody  deluge  of  Mohammedanism  into  Europe.  Faith  in 
manifest  destiny  established  the  "Western  Empire,  under 
Charlemagne ;  it  had  made  Eome  before ;  and  it  has  upheld 
the  Anglo-Saxon  race  in  all  its  wondrous  career.  The 
American  mind  expands  with  a  vast  idea — its  "  manifest 
destiny."  Thousands  condemn,  and  thousands  ridicule, 
and  yet  the  conception  has  its  origin  in  the  circumstances 
of  national  position,  and  in  national  character;  it  has 
shaped  itself  to  existing  wants,  and  even  existing  proba- 
bilities, and  its  very  existence  is  the  herald  and  guaranty 
of  future  accomplishment. 

The  fact  that  such  an  idea  may  possess  the  mind  of  a 
nation,  and  may  become  a  reality  in  the  course  of  its  pro- 
gress, does  by  no  means  determine  its  moral  character,  or 
prove  that  the  steps  are  justifiable  in  themselves  by  which 
a  great  national  end  is  finally  reached.  God  causes  the 
wrath  of  man  to  praise  him,  and  national  sins  will  no  less 
be  punished  because  committed  in  working  out  a  previously 
appointed  destiny.  Connected  with  this  subject  another 
fact  should  be  remembered.  lN"o  nation,  probably,  has  been 
conscious  of  the  hour  when  it  passed  its  culminating  point, 
and  when  its  mission  was  accomplished,  but,  on  the  cou- 


AS  AFFECTING  NATIONAL   POLICY  AND   DESTINY.  267 

trarj,  retains  in  the  decay  and  infirmity  of  old  age  tLe 
brightest  anticipations  of  its  youth,  and  all  the  pride  of  its 
day  of  vigor  and  of  power.  It  refuses  to  perceive  that  the 
scepter  has  passed  into  other  hands,  and  still  pompously 
commands  the  obedience  of  the  world.  It  is  not  generally 
difficult  to  determine  whether  such  a  national  sentiment  is 
connected  with  a  youthful  and  expanding  life,  or  whether 
it  belongs  to  the  empty  and  powerless  vanity  of  old  age. 

If  now,  with  these  facts  in  view  we  turn  to  Russia,  we 
fi[nd  all  travelers  testifying  to  the  existence  of  two  national 
opinions,  which  may  be  said  to  be  universal  with  the  fifty 
millions  of  the  Russian  race.  One  opinion  is,  that  they  are 
to  possess  Constantinople,  and  the  other,  that  they  are  des- 
tined to  become  the  most  powerful  nation  of  the  world,  and 
to  control  all  Europe,  at  least,  if  not  the  world.  Upon  fifty 
millions  of  minds  the  impression  seems  to  have  been  made, 
whether  true  or  false,  whether  pointing  to  a  reality  in  the 
future  or  not,  that  Russia  is  entrusted  with  a  great  mission 
in  the  social  regeneration  of  the  world.  Whence  this  im- 
pression has  arisen  who  shall  pretend  to  say ;  that  it  will 
find  no  corresponding  reality  in  the  future  who  will  venture 
with  confidence  to  declare?  That  the  national,  or  it  may 
also  be  called  the  traditional,  policy  of  the  empire  is  founded 
upon  these  ideas,  is  now  known  probably  to  all.  That  fact 
alone  is  worthy  of  attentive  consideration,  because  it  shows 
that  the  course  of  Russia  is  the  result  of  a  national  impulse, 
and  that  no  change  of  rulers  can  essentially  alter  the  policy 
to  which  the  nation  has  committed  itself,  and  may  admon- 
ish the  Powers  of  western  Europe  that  it  is  no  easy  matter, 
even  by  severe  reverses,  completely  to  annihilate  the  pride 
and  the  hopes  of  fifty  millions  of  people,  subvert  an  all- 
pervading  national  sentiment,  and  compel  a  great  empire  to 
a  new  line  of  policy. 

In  estimating  the  influence  of  these  sentiments  as  elements 
of  power  in  a  national  movement,  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  they  are  found  not  alone  in  the  breasts  of  the  Emperor 
and  the  nobles,  or  a  few  restless  and  ambitious  men,  but 
they  are  cherished  and  firmly  believed  in  by  the  lowest  of 


268  THE  NATIONAL   SENTIMENT   OF   RUSSIA. 

tlie  peasantry,  and  made  the  basis  of  a  truly  national  antici- 
pation— they  are  but  the  expression  of  a  national  thought, 
and  the  determination  of  a  whole  people ;  and  when  to  this 
is  added  the  fact  that  this  hope  stands  inseparably  connected 
with  the  spread  of  their  national  religion,  it  becomes  evi- 
dent that  this  idea  of  "  manifest  destiny"  is  the  source  of 
a  power  whose  importance  can  scarcely  be  overrated.  It 
renders  Russia  most  mighty  for  the  accomplishment  either  of 
good  or  evil.  The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  late  Ame- 
rican writer,  who  regards  everything  Russian  with  a  some- 
what unfavorable  eye,  and  presents  his  opinion  of  the 
character  of  that  race  upon  whom  the  national  sentiment 
alluded  to  is  working  with  greatest  power. 

"  The  great  Russian  lives  to  an  extreme  old  age,  longer, 
upon  an  average,  than  the  man  of  another  country.  His 
generative  power  is  remarkable.  In  central  Russia  the  in- 
crease of  the  population  is  beyond  all  former  precedent  in 
Europe;  while  the  natives  of  the  conquered  provinces  are 
diminishing  with  fearful  rapidity,  the  population  of  the 
whole  empire,  refreshed  from  this  exhaustless  source,  counts 
every  year  another  million  among  its  multitudes.  Thou- 
sands and  t^ns  of  thousands,  in  a  perpetual  stream,  flow 
from  this  fountain  head  into  the  vast  regions  of  the  north, 
south,  east,  and  west.  In  every  country,  and  among  every 
people  beneath  the  scepter  of  the  Czar,  the  "Weliki  Russian 
will  be  found,  asserting  the  supremacy  of  his  race,  and 
showing  his  skill  and  cunning.  All  the  tribes  w^ith  whom 
he  comes  in  contact  yield  to  his  activity,  and  dwindle  in 
significance  before  the  progress  of  his  encroachments.  He 
even  penetrates  beyond  the  frontiers  of  the  empire.  "While 
he  profits  as  a  merchant,  he  is  often  the  secret  agent  of  the 
government.  His  advance  precedes  the  march  of  armies, 
and  his  aggression  pave  the  way  to  conquest." 

"When  the  idea  of  a  definite  national  mission  or  destiny 
has  taken  full  possession  of  such  a  race,  it  is  very  likely  to 
produce  important  results.     The  portrait   drawn   by  this 


AS   AFFECTING  NATIONAL   POLICY  AND   DESTINY.  269 

author  can  scarcely  fail  to  remind  one  of  many  of  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  American  race ;  and  when  he  adds  that 
these  Eussians  are  ignorant  and  dishonest,  it  should  he 
borne  in  mind  that  the  Yankees  have  by  no  means  escaped 
imputations  of  this  kind,  and  yet  'New  England  is  the  work 
of  Yankees.  And  if,  as  the  author  affirms,  the  Russian  in 
his  superstition  imagines  that  a  great  work  has  been  com- 
mitted to  his  country,  in  the  social  regeneration  of  the 
world,  it  must  be  confessed  that  a  similar  superstition  has 
seized  also  on  the  niinds  of  Americans.  It  would  perhaps 
be  interesting  to  study  the  present  prevailing  national  sen- 
timent in  the  prominent  nations,  and  inquire  how  far  these 
presentiments  may  shadow  forth  the  actual  future.  The 
following  is  probably  near  the  truth.  Russia  and  America 
are  full  of  boundless  hope,  and  even  confidence  of  ruling, 
each  over  half  a  world.  They  think  of  nothing  less  than 
expansion  on  every  side,  and  progress  reaching  far  into  the 
future.  France  hopes  to  head  a  combination  of  western 
States.  England  is  filled  with  apprehension,  and  no  defi- 
nite future  opens  before  her.  The  preservation  of  what 
she  possesses  is  probably  the  prominent  thought.  Austria 
and  Prussia  are  nearly  in  the  same  position,  while  Turkey 
is  oppressed  with  a  sense  of  approaching  ruin.  Will  not 
these  sentiments  be  very  likely  to  produce  a  corresponding 
reality  ? 

Certain  it  is  that  England  is  no  longer  the  head  of  wes- 
tern Europe.  She  follows  in  the  train  of  Catholic  France, 
and  we  are  led  anxiously  to  inquire  to  what  extent  she  may 
yet  put  on  the  Papal  yoke,  when  such  a  man  as  Lord  John 
Russell,  with  his  suite  and  family,  attencfs  high  mass  with 
all  signs  of  sincere  devotion.  When  those  who  are  at  the 
head  of  the  affairs  of  England  stand  in  such  relations  to 
the  Papal  power,  and  she  deliberately  allies  herself  with  the 
Latin  Church,  choosing  as  she  declared,  a  western  combin- 
ation in  favor  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  rather  than 
the  progress  of  Russia  and  the  Greek  Christianity,  Ameri- 
can Protestantism  may  well  find  cause  to  rejoice  in  the  tra- 
ditional sentiment  of  the  Muscovite  Empire,  which  has 


270  THE  NATIONAL   SENTIMENT   OF  RUSSIA. 

placed  it  as  the  present  sole  bulwark  in  Europe  against  this 
new  advance  of  the  Papacy. 

The  world  may  well  hope  that  both  Eussia  and  the 
United  States  may  attain  unto  what  they  consider  their 
manifest  destiny,  because  they  are  the  only  great  Powers 
of  the  world  now,  which  can  be  fully  relied  upon  in  the 
present  struggle  with  Eome.  "With  the  religious  aspect  of 
the  Eastern  war  fully  and  clearly  before  her,  England  has 
espoused  the  quarrel  of  the  Pope,  and  with  this  evidence  of 
her  spirit  presented  to  the  world,  who  shall  say  that  in  the 
terrible  struggle  for  principle,  and  for  faith,  upon  which 
the  nations  have  apparently  entered,  she  will  again  ally 
herself  to  the  right. 


^*  THE  EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  OF  RUSSIA.  271 


CHAPTER    XXV 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  OF  RUSSIA. 

The  Crimean  war  was  declared  by  England  and  France 
to  be  a  war  of  civilization  against  barbarism.  The  London 
Quarterly  for  April,  1854,  holds  the  following  language,  in 
which  is  expressed  the  sentiment  that  England  is  industri- 
ously striving  to  spread  abroad  :  "  If  this  contest  is  to  be 
"  waged  between  the  forces  of  civilization  and  liberty  against  ^ 
"  those  of  a  seini-harharous  empire^  aspiring  to  crush  the  inde-  '^ 
"  pendence  of  Europe,  we  neither  doubt  nor  dread  the  issue 
"  of  the  war  in  which  England  and  France  have  been  com- 
^^pelled  to  engage."  How  will  this  appear  when  impartial 
history  shall  show  that  Kussia,  so  far  from  being  aggressor 
in  that  war,  was  compelled  by  the  meddling  intrigues  of 
French  Jesuitism  either  to  yield  to  the  pretensions  of  Rome 
or  defend  her  own  equal  rights  by  arms  ?  How  the  charge 
of  barbarism  which  rings  out  from  the  English  Press,  and 
which  a  portion  of  the  American  Press  is  disposed  to  echo, 
will  stand  by  the  side  of  facts  which  will  soon  be  presented, 
the  reader  will  judge. 

The  North  British  Eeview,  for  [N'ovember,  1854,  in  describ- 
ing what  the  consequences  of  success,  then  considered  cer- 
tain, would  be,  says :  "  Europe  would  be  for  generations, 
if  not  for  centuries  and  forever,  liberated  from  the  dangers 


272  THE   EDUCATIONAL   INSTITUTIONS   OF   RUSSIA. 

of  a  semi-oriental  barbarism,  and  England  and  France,  differ- 
ing in  the  forms,  but  yet  harmonious  in  the  tendencies  of 
their  civilization,  might  go  to  rest  in  each  others  arms.  It 
seems  indeed  not  unlikely  that  Protestant  England  will  lie 
down  in  the  arms  of  Catholic  France,  but  whether  she  will 
awake  and  find  herself  still  Protestant  England  admits  at 
least  of  question.  "  Semi-oriental  barbarism"  is  the  phrase 
applied  by  this  religious  journal  to  Kussia.  "  A  war  of 
"  civilization  against  barbarism,  of  liberty  against  depot- 
"  ism,"  and  on  this  ground  an  appeal  was  made  by  England 
and  France  to  the  sympathies  of  the  world,  and  especially 
of  Eepublican  America. 

That  the  Crimean  war  was  in  no  sense  a  war  of  liberty 
against  despotism  will  be  made  to  appear,  and  we  shall  be 
enabled  to  judge  of  the  barbarism  of  Russia,  and  of  the 
spirit  and  tendency  of  her  institutions,  by  a  glance  at  her 
educational  systems.  We  shall  be  able  to  decide  from  these 
whether  Kussia  presents  a  stationary  barbarism,  without 
internal  life  or  vigor,  or  whether  she  exhibits  the  spectacle 
of  a  nation  rapidly  assuming  the  forms  of  a  superior  civil- 
ization, and  with  vigorous  step  advancing  in  the  career  of 
solid  improvement,  aiming  in  all  her  institutions  to  cultivate 
and  develope  her  own  individual  national  life.  We  only 
deceive  ourselves  when  we  seize  upon  phrases  such  as  liberty 
and  despotism,  civilization  and  barbarism,  and  use  them  in 
describing  Russia,  without  a  careful  study  of  her  position 
and  character. 

In  studying  even  an  imperfect  sketch  of  the  educational 
system  of  the  empire  of  the  Czar,  it  should  be  borne  in 
mind  that  the  popular  conception  seems  to  be,  that  what- 
ever improvement  has  been  made  in  Russia  is  due  to 
foreigners  alone.  Her  army,  it  is  said,  is  ofiicered  by  for- 
eigners ;  by  them  her  ships  have  been  built,  her  fortifica- 
tions have  been  constructed;  by  them  her  cannon  have 
been  cast,  and  by  them  her  schools  are  taught.  But  another 
conception  of  this  nation  is  of  a  people  earnest,  active,  and 
capable  of.  availing  themselves  freely  of  the  world's  science, 
experience  and  skill,  to  aid  them  in  their  work  of  national 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   INSTITUTIONS   OF   RUSSIA.  273 

elevation.  It  will  be  found  that  the  latter  idea  alone  can 
explain  the  character  of  her  educational  system.  The  mili- 
tary schools,  as  the  most  prominent,  first  demand  attention. 
The  exact  condition  of  these  schools  now  is  not  known,  but 
insomuch  as  they  have  received  the  constant  and  most  zeal- 
ous attention  of  the  government,  it  is  to  be  presumed  that 
the  cause  of  education  keeps  pace  with  the  improvements 
and  discoveries  of  modern  science,  and  that  the  number  of 
pupils  increases  in  proportion  to  the  growth  of  the  empire. 
Some  years  since,  the  number  of  pupils  at  the  military 
schools  was  reported  as  follows : 

Pupils  at  Military  Schools  under  Grand  Duke 

Michael,       .        -  -  -  .  8,73a 

Pupils  at  :N'avy  Board  Schools,      -  -  2,224 


Total,  .  -  -  -  10,957 

The  above  are  piincipally,  if  not  entirely,  from  the  best 
families  of  the  empire,  and  are  subjected  to  the  most  thorough 
scientific  and  military  training,  a  course  which,  for  com- 
pleteness and  finish,  is  not  exceeded  by  any  schools  of  the 
world.  By  common  consent  of  all  who  know  their  char- 
acter, they  are  admitted  to  have  no  superior.  Some  details^ 
will  hereafter  be  given.  These  eleven  thousand  supply  the 
officers  for  the  army  and  navy.  In  addition  to  these  there 
were  at  the  same  time  in  the  schools  under  the  direction 
of  the  Minister  of  "War  one  hundred  and  sixty-nine  thousand 
pupils,  making  in  all  nearly  one  hundred  and  eighty  thou- 
sand of  the  very  flower  of  the  Russian  youth,  a  number 
which,  with  the  increase  of  the  population,  may  now  be 
reckoned  at  two  hundred  thousand,  who  are  receiving  at 
the  hands  of  the  government  the  most  complete  military 
education  that  the  science  of  the  world  is  capable  of  sup- 
plying. 

This  fact  bears  with  great  force  upon  the  question  of  the 
military  power  of  Russia,  and  might  be  profitably  consid- 
ered by  those  who  insist  that  the  army  of  the  empire  is  in- 
capable of  becoming  efficient.  The  world  beside,  exhibits 
no  such  spectacle,  no  such  scientific  preparation  for  war, 
18 


274^  THE   EDUCATIONAL   INSTITUTIONS   OF   RUSSIA. 

and  the  fortresses,  the  armament  and  gunnery,  bear  ample 
testimony  to  the  proficiency  of  these  scholars. 

Although  for  convenience  sake,  reference  has  been  made 
to  the  estimate  made  by  the  London  Quarterly  of  the  popu- 
lation of  the  Empire,  yet  the  preponderance  of  evidence 
would  seem  to  show  that  the  number  stated  is  too  small, 
and  that  eighty  millions  is  now  nearer  the  truth.  This  in- 
deed is  the  estimate  of  a  writer  lately  quoted  in  another 
English  Eeview;  while  the  calculations  of  Malte  Brun 
would  swell  the  present  population  beyond  even  this.  But 
admitting  the  existence  of  eighty  millions  on  Russian  soil, 
having  a  formidable,  active,  united  race,  as  the  central  life 
and  power  of  the  mighty  mass,  it  is  an  important  question, 
not  for  Europe  alone,  but  for  Americans  to  study,  what  is 
to  be  the  influence  of  such  a  power  upon  the  world's  des- 
tin}^,  when  directed  by  the  flower  of  the  E*hipire,  with  the 
most  thorough  military  education  ?  Let  those  who  sup- 
pose that  the  power  of  this  great  empire  is  to  be  suddenly 
checked,  or  even  ultimately  repressed,  until  its  national 
mission  is  accomplished,  study  the  influence  of  the  schools 
attentively,  and  they  will  find  good  cause  to  review  their 
opinions. 

Let  Americans  consider  the  effect  which  our  one  small 
military  school  has  produced  upon  our  army,  and  even  upon 
the  whole  nation,  and  then  estimate  if  they  can,  the  power 
created  by  the  constant  education  of  ten  or  twelve  thousand 
such  young  men  for  the  control  of  the  Russian  armies,  and 
of  the  regular  training  of  one  hundred  thousand  more  in 
the  acquisition  of  the  arts  of  war.  ^o  system  of  detraction, 
however  skillful  or  deliberate,  or  perseveringly  maintained, 
will  prevent  such  institutions  from  working  out  their  legiti- 
mate results ;  and  France  and  England  have  been  compelled^; 
reluctantly  to  admit  that  they  met  in  the  Crimea  a  military 
science,  particularly  in  engineering,  more  excellent  than 
their  own.  This  skill,  which  baffled  the  allied  armies  before 
Sebastopol,  and  which  devised  and  directed  the  terrible  < 
-artillery  that  hurled  defiance  and  death  from  its  walls,  haS' 
been  acquired  in  these  military  schools;  and  when  it  ia 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   INSTITUTIONS   OF   RUSSIA.  275 

remembered  that  many  of  these  most  efficient  guns  are 
taken  from  the  ships  in  the  harbor,  it  may  awaken  some 
reflections  as  to  what  the  gunnery  of  the  Russian  navy  may 
yet  accomplish.  Some  idea  of  the  completeness  of  the  edu- 
cation in  these  schools  may  be  obtained  from  a  few  facts. 

The  system  of  Russian  fortifications  by  which  the  empire 
is  defended,  is  separated  into  ten  distinct  divisions.  In  the 
old  Michaeloff  palace,  now  the  School  of  Engineers,  in  St* 
Petersburgh,  a  separate  hall  is  allotted  to  each  of  these 
divisions,  in  which  is  collected  whatever  can  illustrate  the 
character  of  the  district  which  the  hall  represents,  and  the 
fortifications  which  it  contains.  Here,  for  inspection  and 
study,  are  plans  general  and  in  detail,  of  all  the  fortifica- 
tions of  the  empire,  arranged  according  to  their  territorial 
divisions,  and  not  only  of  all  the  fortresses,  but  of  all  that 
have  been  projected  and  are  yet  unfinished,  and  each  par- 
ticular fortress  has  a  department  by  itself,  in  which  are  col- 
lected specimens  of  the  materials  used  or  to  be  employed 
in  its  construction,  including  bricks  and  kinds  of  earth,  and 
descriptions  of  stone  which  can  be  found  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, so  that  each  pupil  has  in  this  way  a  local  education 
in  addition  to  his  general  scientific  training.  Here  also,  as 
subjects  for  study,  are  accurate  models  in  wood  and  clay  of 
every  fortification  in  Russia,  presenting  each  with  perfect 
exactness,  so  that  not  a  single  object,  even  to  a  tree,  is 
omitted.  By  such  means,  the  study  of  the  defenses  of  each 
fortification,  and  the  manner  in  which  it  might  be  attacked, 
may  be  conned  on  as  perfectly  as  if  on  the  spot,  and  every 
cadet,  when  he  graduates,  is  prepared  for  any  post  in  the 
country,  understanding  beforehand  all  the  local  character- 
istics of  the  station  to  which  he  is  appointed. 

It  is  strongly  significant  of  the  traditional  policy  and 
prevailing  feelings  of  the  nation,  that  here  also  is  a  perfect 
and  most  minute  plan  of  the  fortifications  of  Constanti- 
nople ;  the  castles  of  the  Dardanelles,  with  every  feature, 
are  presented,  together  with  the  aspect  and  character  of  the 
Straits,  so  that  every  young  Russian  officer  studies  the 
nature  of  an  attack  on  Constantinople  in  addition  to  his 


276  THE   EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS   OP  RUSSIA. 

general  preparation  for  war.  A  single  fact  is  sufficient  to 
show  the  practical  character  of  the  instruction  in  the  naval 
schools — the  senior  class  of  cadets  annually  take  in  pieces 
and  rebuild  a  large  model  of  an  American  frigate.  The 
instruction  in  these  schools  embraces  the  higher  mathe- 
matics, and  their  application  to  military  and  naval  architec- 
ture, and  navigation,  drawing  in  all  its  departments,  both 
the  theory  and  practice  of  the  construction  of  fortresses 
and  ships,  with  modern  languages,  history,  and  general 
literature. 

The  children  of  soldiers,  and  especially  the  orphan  chil- 
dren, are  particularly  cared  for  by  the  government,  placed 
in  schools,  and  educated  for  the  army.  At  St.  Petersburgh 
there  is  the  Miner's  School.  It  occupies  a  magnificent 
building,  in  which  more  than  three  hundred  pupils  are  con- 
stantly studying  under  competent  professors,  with  every 
facility  for  obtaining  an  education  having  great  breadth 
and  thoroughness.  In  this  institution  the  pupil  spends 
eight  years,  and  then,  with  as  perfect  a  training  as  science 
can  impart,  he  is  sent  to  superintend  the  government  mines 
in  the  Ural ;  and  this  school  and  the  number  of  its  pupils 
is  enough  to  indicate  the  importance  of  that  portion  of  the 
resources  of  Russia. 

Attached  to  this  important  school  is  an  immense  and 
very  complete  collection  of  whatever  can  illustrate  the 
sciences  of  geology  and  mineralogy,  but  particularly  that 
of  Russia.  These  several  museums,  rich,  it  is  said,  beyond 
comparison  with  any  similar  collections  elsewhere,  contain 
minerals,  geological  specimens,  and  fossils,  from  the  most 
interesting  localities,  not  only  in  Russia  but  from  other 
parts  of  the  world,  and  here  also  are  collected  models  of 
machinery,  and  implements,  and  even  models  of  mines  them- 
selves. The  completeness  of  the  education  which  the  gov- 
ernment bestows  upon  its  servants,  and  the  enlightened 
character  of  its  policy,  may  be  seen  in  the  expenses  incurred 
and  the  pains  which  have  been  taken  to  prepare  those  who 
are  to  have  the  care  of  the  public  mines  and  the  imperial 
mint. 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   INSTITUTIONS   OP   RUSSIA.  277 

In  addition  to  what  has  been  already  described,  artificial 
mines  of  various  kinds  have  been  constructed  by  the  actual 
excavation  of  subterranean  galleries,  such  as  are  found  in 
the  real  mine,  and  a  fac  simile  of  a  mine  in  the  Ural  is  pro- 
duced, with  the  real  earth,  rocks,  and  imbedded  ores  and 
minerals,  precisely  as  they  are  found  in  the  distant  moun- 
tains. Here  the  Geological  student  beholds  the  iron,  the 
copper,  the  coal,  the  precious  stones,  and  the  gold,  in  their 
natural  position,  and  precisely  as  he  will  meet  them  in  his 
future  operations  in  the  actual  mines.  Certainly  no  more 
admirable  device  could  be  found  for  preparing  the  students 
of  this  school  for  the  duties  of  real  life.  Is  there  any  gov- 
ernment in  the  world  which  has  undertaken  the  develope- 
ment  of  its  mineral  resources  on  so  magnificent  a  scale,  and 
in  a  manner  so  thoroughly  scientific  and  at  the  same  time 
so  practical  ? 

The  Academy  of  Fine  Arts  is  a  building  four  hundred 
feet  long  and  seventy  feet  high,  in  which  is  not  only  a  mag- 
nificent picture  gallery,  but  a  school  of  Art,  in  which  three 
hundred  pupils  are  supported  and  educated.  A  school  of 
the  Arts  is  also  maintained  by  the  government,  in  which 
two  hundred  students,  the  sons  of  tradesmen,  receive  not 
only  a  general  education,  but  also  special  instruction  in  the 
mechanical  arts,  and  who  are  sent  for  the  general  improve- 
ment of  the  country  by  directing  its  various  branches  of 
labor.  There  is  a  I^ormal  School  of  importance  ;  the  Uni- 
versity, with  ^N^  hundred  students  and  fifty-eight  profes- 
sors ;  a  Medical  College,  with  five  hundred  pupils ;  a  Female 
Institute,  in  which  four  hundred  young  ladies  are  gratui- 
tously educated ;  and  there  are  also  theological,  commercial, 
and  other  schools  of  various  character. 

Among  these  the  Agricultural  School  deserves  particular 
mention.  A  farm  of  seven  hundred  acres  has  been  laid  out, 
under  the  direction  of  the  government,  and  on  the  premises, 
an  agricultural  school  has  been  established,  where  both  the 
theory  and  the  practice  of  agriculture  are  taught  to  two 
hundred  young  peasants.  An  extensive  museum  is  attached 
to  this  farm  containing  whatever  relates  to  the  occupation 


278  THE  EDUCATIONAL   INSTITUTIONS   OF   RUSSIA. 

of  a  farmer,  including  all  descriptions  of  agricultui-al  imple- 
ments, even  to  the  latest  improvements  known  in  America. 
Here  also  the  finest  breeds  of  cattle  are  collected,  and 
model  cottages  are  introduced,  with  the  design  of  improving 
the  architecture  of  the  Russian  farmers,  which  resembles 
very  much  the  log-cabins  of  our  own  "  backwoodsJ'  Each 
province  is  allowed  to  send  annually  a  certain  number  to 
this  school,  and  each  year  fifty  graduates  are  distributed 
through  the  country,  bearing  abroad  the  skill  and  science 
which  they  have  obtained  in  a  four-years'  course. 

The  pupils  are  also  taught  here  the  various  trades  which 
may  be  either  useful  to  a  farmer  remote  from  markets,  or 
which  can  be  followed  as  a  business  by  the  pupils.  Black- 
smiths' and  carpenters'  work,  cooperage,  the  construction 
of  agricultural  implements,  tailoring,  shoemaking,  and  cab- 
inet making,  are  included  in  the  course  of  instruction, 
and  connected  with  the  school  is  a  foundry,  a  brick-yard, 
a  pottery,  a  tan- yard,  and  a  wind-mill. 

As  by  the  testimony  of  candid  travelers  this  establish- 
ment is  well  conducted,  its  influence  must  be  extensively 
felt  in  the  development  of  the  agricultural  resources  of  the 
country.  Great  care  is  taken  in  this  school  for  farmers 
to  show  how  the  principles  of  agricultural  science  shall  be 
applied  to  particular  localities,  so  that  the  education  of  the 
pupils  becomes  eminently  practical  and  available.  At  the 
conclusion  of  the  course  each  graduate  is  presented  with  a 
farm  and  one  thousand  roubles  to  stock  it,  and  the  govern- 
ment encourages  them  to  become,  by  theory  and  practice, 
the  teachers  of  the  neighborhood  in  which  they  are  located. 

Baron  Haxthausen,  whose  notes  on  Russia  are  among 
the  most  reliable  sources  of  information,  made  a  close  ex- 
amination of  one  of  these  farms,  and  describes  it  as  in  a 
good  state  of  cultivation,  and  as  having  exercised  a  marked 
influence  upon  the  adjoining  country.  He  found  the  farm 
house  "  comfortable  and  scrupulously  clean'' — there  were 
books  indoors  and  flowers  without,  and  all  the  furniture  of 
the  house,  as  well  as  the  farming  tools  and  machinery,  had 
been  made  by  those  who  occupied  the  farms. 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   INSTITUTIONS   OP   RUSSIA.  279 

A  second  government  scliobl  of  this  description,  on  a 
very  extensive  scale,  is  now  in  a  flourishing  condition  at 
Lipezk,  in  south  Russia,  and,  in  addition  to  this,  a  horti- 
cultural school  has  also  been  established  by  the  emperor, 
and  placed  in  charge  of  some  German  teachers.  Separate 
from  these  schools  for  special  purposes,  is  a  school  system 
for  the  empire,  yet  in  its  youth,  but  which  promises  great 
results  for  the  future,  and  is  indeed  already  exerting  a 
transforming  power  upon  the  character  of  the  nation. 

The  whole  of  Russia  is  divided  into  university  districts, 
with  a  district  university  in  each  with  subordinate  schools 
attached,  and  at  the  head  of  them  all  is  the  ]S"ational  Uni- 
verity  at  Moscow.  All  the  schools  of  each  district  are 
under  the  charge  of  the  district  university.  It  is  a  com- 
pletely organized  national  system,  which  when  fully  carried 
out,  will  make  the  means  of  education  universal  in  Russia. 

The  following  statements,  condensed  by  the  London 
Quarterly  from  the  "  ^N'otes"  of  Baron  Haxthausen,  will  be 
found  interesting,  as  affording  accurate  information  con- 
cerning the  schools,  and  some  of  the  institutions  of  Mos- 
cow, and  throwing  light  upon  the  spirit  and  aims  of  the 
government : 

"  Few  capitals  can  boast  so  many  educational  institutions 
as  now  exist  at  Moscow  under  the  crown  patronage.  Be- 
ginning with  the  University,  the  Baron  speaks  of  the  upper 
professors  as  fully  acquainted  with  all  that  has  been  written 
in  other  countries  on  their  respective  subjects,  nor  is  he  less 
pleased  with  the  state  of  the  numerous  schools  subordinate 
to  this  University.  Other  schools  are,  those  of  commerce 
(partly  supported  by  the  Merchants  of  Moscow),  of  drawing, 
for  soldiers'  orphans,  and  for  cadets ;  but  the  greatest  of  all 
seems  to  be  the  Imperial  House  of  Education,  founded  by 
Catharine  II.  It  has  at  least  twenty- six  thousand  children 
belonging  to  it,  either  within  its  walls  or  put  out  to  nurse 
in  the  country — all  of  them  orphans  of  officers,  or  found- 
lings. Of  the  children  in  the  house,  the  boys  are  brought 
up  to  be  schoolmasters  or  to  be  sent  to  the  University ; 


280  THE  EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS   OF   RUSSIA. 

the  girls  to  be  governesses — ^learning  German,  French, 
drawing,  dancing,  history,  geometry,  and  music,  besides 
sewing,  knitting,  etc.  Places  are  found  for  them,  by-and- 
bye,  but  not  in  either  of  the  capitals,  which  are  thought^ 
unsafe  for  "  unprotected  females."  They  are  watched  for 
six  years,  and  if  marriage  comes  in  their  way  proper  in- 
quiries are  made  about  the  swain.  Attached  to  the  insti- 
tution is  a  school  of  Arts,  the  pupils  of  which  are  thor- 
oughly trained  in  the  practice  of  some  one  of  the  different 
trades  that  figure  on  the  list,  and  which  are  in  number 
seventeen,^' 

Among  the  educational  institutions  of  Russia,  the  public 
libraries  of  St.  Petersburgh  should  not  be  omitted.  The 
Imperial  Library  is  one  of  the  largest  in  the  world.  It 
contains  four  hundred  thousand  volumes,  and  fifteen  thou- 
sand manuscripts.  It  is  open  daily  for  the  use  of  the  public. 
It  is  a  curious  fact  that  some  of  the  most  valuable  of  the 
state  documents  of  France  are  now  found  in  the  Russian 
Imperial  Library.  During  the  French  revolution,  these 
treasures  of  the  French  government  were  seized  by  the 
populace  and  sold  to  the  highest  bidder,  who  proved  to  be 
a  Russian,  and  by  whom  they  were  forwarded  to  St.  Peters- 
burgh. There  has  been  gathered  here — ^partly  by  purchase, 
partly  by  presents,  and  also  by  the  spoils  of  war — one  of 
the  very  best  collections  of  oriental  works  to  be  found  in 
the  world.  The  library  of  the  Academy  of  Science  con- 
tains one  hundred  thousand  volumes,  and  that  of  the  Her- 
mitage has  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand. 

The  present  condition  of  Russian  literature,  and  the  ac- 
tivity of  the  public  mind,  may  be  shown  from  the  fact  that 
in  the  ten  years  next  preceding  1843,  seven  millions  of  vol- 
umes of  Russian  books  were  printed,  and  nearly  five  mil- 
lions of  volumes  of  foreign  works  were  imported.  In  a 
single  year  of  this  period,  eight  hundred  and  eighty  works 
were  printed  and  published  within  the  Russian  empire,  and 
only  seventy  of  these  were  translations  from  foreign  tongues. 
The  whole  subject  of  education  is  committed  to  one  of  the 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  OF  RUSSIA.  281 

great  departments  of  state,  at  tlie  head  of  which  is  the 
Minister  of  Public  Instruction. 

This  is  necessarily  an  imperfect  sketch  of  the  educational 
institutions,  in  which  many  details  are  necessarily  omitted, 
but  enough  has  been  exhibited  to  enable  the  reader  to  judge 
of  the  justice  of  the   epithet   "barbarian,"  so  constantly 
applied  to  the  empire  of  the  Czars.    JSTo  one  will  fail  to 
perceive  that  these  are  only  different  parts  of  one  grand 
and  harmonious  system.    ^There  is  an  admirable  compact- 
ness and  unity  in  the  whole  design,  and  two  main  ideas 
have  evidently  both  originated  and  shaped  the  whole — first, 
as  most  important,  the  defense  of  the  empire,  and,  secondly,  „ 
the  development  of  the  national  resources  and  the  encour- 
agement of  domestic  manufactures.    In  regard  to  the  first 
of  these  many  an  invective  has  been  hurled  at  Russia,  be- 
cause, as  is  charged,  she  consumes  her  strength   in   the 
equipment  and  support  of  an  immense  military  force  where- 
with to  threaten  or  overrun  all  western  Europe ;  whereas 
instead,  as  is  maintained,  she  should  have  devoted  herself 
to  the  arts  of  peace  and  of  internal  growth.     But  a  candid 
observer  of  the  condition  and  progress  of  Europe  from  the 
time  of  the  French  revolution,  will  perhaps  be  inclined  to 
admit  that  Russia  has  neither  gone  too  fast  nor  too  far  in 
her  military  preparations,  and  that  her  policy  has  not  only 
been  a  prudent  but  a  necessary  one.     The  invasion  of  1812 
was  an  admonition  not  soon  to  be  forgotten,  and  Mcholas 
was  too  keen  and  too  intelligent  an  observer  of  passing 
events  not  to  foresee  that  a  second  attack  on  his  nation 
was  certain  to  be  made,  sooner  or  later,  either  by  the  infidel 
democracy  of  Europe,  or  if  the  republican  movement  should 
fail,  then  from  the  western  Powers,  directed  by  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church. 

The  control  of  the  Black  Sea  is  essential  to  the  growth 
and  even  safety  of  Russia,  and  no  Russian  statesman  has 
been  ignorant  how  restive  both  England  and  France  have 
been  at  the  predominance  of  the  power  of  the  Emperor 
there.  Under  these  circumstance  Russia  certainly  showed 
a  true  sagacity  in  holding  herself  prepared,  and  the  event 


282  THE  EDUCATIONAL   INSTITUTIONS   OF  RUSSIA. 

justified  the  wisdom  of  her  policy.  What  would  have 
been  the  fate  of  the  nation  now,  unless  western  Europe  had 
found  her  with  her  harness  on  awaiting  their  approach.? 

Russia  can  not  preserve  her  nationality,  her  existence, 
far  less  execute  the  mission  which  she  believes  has  been 
entrusted  to  her,  unless  she  maintains  a  military  force  cap- 
able of  resisting  the  combined  power  of  western  Europe,  or 
at  the  very  least,  as  the  event  has  shown,  the  united  strength 
of  England  and  France.  She  maintains  her  immense  force 
to  secure  herself  from  successful  attack,  not  for  foreign 
conquest.  Instead  of  sacrificing  internal  development  to 
the  support  of  an  army  and  navy,  she  maintains  them  in 
order  that  within  their  circling  lines  and  guns  the  works 
of  peace  may  make  secure  progress  in  the  heart  of  the 
empire.  France  and  England  have  intruded  themselves 
where  they  have  no  right  to  interfere  with  the  growth  of 
Russia,  which  has  been  more  legitimate,  more  reputable, 
and  marked  with  less  injustice  to  the  weak,  than  the  pro- 
gress of  either  of  her  adversaries.  As  has  been  well  ob- 
served by  an  English  writer,  France  made  more  aggressions 
upon  neighboring  nations  in  the  space  of  ten  years  than 
Russia  has  done  in  as  many  centuries ;  and  when  England 
complains  of  Russia  let  her  think  of  her  East  Indian  ex- 
ploits. These  things  do  not  lessen  the  guilt  of  Russian 
aggressions,  but  they  ought  to  silence  these  her  special  and 
busy  accusers,  who  arraign  her  at  the  tribunal  of  public 
opinion,  as  if  they  alone  were  innocent  of  ambition,  or 
oppression,  or  robbery. 

After  the  safety  of  the  nation  has  been  cared  for,  the 
government  turns  its  next  care  to  internal  national  develop- 
ment ;  and  certainly  no  nation  in  the  world  can  boast  of  a 
more  enlightened,  thorough,  or  scientific  system  of  instruc- 
tion than  Russia  herself  has  established.  The  great  sources 
of  her  national  strength,  and  from  which  she  derives  her 
vitality,  are  agriculture,  her  mines,  and  her  manufactures. 
Constructing  as  a  basis  of  educational  operations  a  complete 
national  sytem,  which  is  extending  itself  regularly  with  the 
progress  of  the  country,  she  has  then  provided  schools  of 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   INSTITUTIONS   OF   RUSSIA.  283 

the  most  magnificent  character,  to  give  the  minds  of  the 
Eussian  youth  that  special  direction  which  is  demanded  by 
the  character  and  policy  of  the  country;  and  from  these 
schools,  as  centers,  an  influence  is  diffused  through  the 
whole  nation  by  which  the  resources  of  the  empire  are 
sought  out  and  developed  by  a  combination  of  science  with 
mechanical  skill. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  any  other  nation  of  the  world  has 
studied  its  own  resources  more  carefully,  or  instituted  a 
more  effectual  method  for  making  them  available.  A 
nation  capable  of  such  designs,  and  of  executing  them  on  a 
scale  of  such  grandeur,  deserves  not  the  name  barbarian. 


284  IHE   CHARACTEE  OF  THE   RUSSIAN  INTELLECT 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 


THE  CHAKACTER  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  INTELLECT. 

Having  made  a  partial  exhibition  of  the  elements  of 
greatness  which  belong  to  the  Russian  Empire,  it  may  be 
well  to  pause  before  the  introduction  of  additional  statements 
on  these  points,  and  bestow  some  attention  upon  the  mental 
characteristics  of  the  race  in  whose  hands  these  resources 
and  advantages  have  been  placed  in  the  providence  of  God. 
This,  perhaps,  will  enable  us  to  determine  the  probable 
character  of  Russian  civilization,  and  its  future  influence 
upon  the  destiny  of  Europe  and  America.  Two  interesting 
questions  here  present  themselves.  Will  Russia  assume  a 
form  of  civilization,  individual  and  national — a  Russian  or 
Sclavonic  civilization — and  if  so,  what  will  be  its  distinctive 
characteristics?  It  is  a  common  remark  of  French  and 
English  writers,  that  Russia  produces  nothing  original,  that 
she  is  destitute  of  the  creative  power  of  genius,  and  pos- 
sesses only  the  imitative  character  of  some  of  the  oriental 
nations,  and  is  therefore  doomed  like  them  to  the  inferior 
life  of  a  mere  copyist  of  western  Europe.  She  is  repre- 
sented as  wearing  the  garments  of  civilization  after  the 
manner  of  a  savage ;  a  European  exterior,  which  can  not 
conceal  the  barbarian.    No  intelligent  opinion  can  be  formed 


'    THE   CHARACTER   OF^THE   RUSSIAN  INTELLECT.  285 

of  the  future  of  this  great  empire,  until  we  decide  whethei 
such  representations  are  true  or  false.  In  the  very  begin- 
ning of  such  an  investigation  it  should  be  remembered  that 
even  the  highest  forms  of  genius  must  operate  with  mate- 
rials already  in  existence,  that  strictly  speaking  it  creates 
nothing,  and  that  its  most  signal  triumphs  are  won  by  pre- 
senting familiar  things  in  a  new  light,  and  throwing  them 
into  original  combinations. 

Every  modern  nation  to  a  great  extent  is  necessarily  an 
imitator.  Our  age  is  the  heir  of  the  past,  and  has  come 
into  possession  of  the  treasures  of  thought  and  art  accumu- 
lated by  preceding  generations,  and  the  only  question  which 
remains  is,  whether  from  this  stock  of  material,  common 
to  all  Christendom  now,  a  nation  can  rear  a  social,  political, 
and  religious  structure,  which  shall  exhibit  a  distinctive 
and  individual  character?  The  nations  of  the  modern 
world  are  all  the  inheritors  of  the  mingled  Greek  and  Ro- 
man civilization,  and  these  forms  of  national  life  have  been 
developed,  in  western  Europe,  from  the  materials  thus  sup- 
plied— ^the  Latin,  the  German,  and  the  Anglo-Saxon.  These, 
however,  are  being  now  mingled,  and  the  original  individu- 
ality by  which  they  were  distinguished  is  disappeariug,  and 
a  constantly  increasing  intercourse  is  sweeping  away  the 
peculiarities  of  each.  It  would  appear  impossible,  under 
present  circumstances,  for  any  one  of  the  nations  of  western 
Europe  to  work  out  hereafter  a  separate  and  individual 
destiny,  or  to  pursue  a  strictly  national  policy.  Each  is 
molding  each,  and  society  must  become  the  resultant  of 
conflicting  forces.  Europe  can  neither  be  English,  nor 
French,  nor  German,  nor  can  either  nation  retain  the 
sharp  distinctness  of  its  own  original  outline. 

It  remains  to  be  seen  what  excellencies  these  mingled 
elements  may  exhibit  as  they  combine.  Still  Germany, 
France,  and  England,  stamping  their  own  characteristics 
upon  the  materials  furnished  by  the  ancient  world,  have 
each  produced  a  national  form  of  civilization,  a  form  which 
France  shares  with  the  other  branches  of  the  Latin  family. 
In  the  same  manner  the  Roman  forms  received  the  impress 


286  THE   CHARACTER   OF   THE   RUSSIAN  INTELLECT. 

of  the  Grecian  mind,  and  thus  Greece  herself  softened  and 
adorned  the  stately  gigantic  grandeur  of  Egypt.  ISlor  will 
it  be  easy  to  discover  any  nation  this  side  the  deluge  that 
has  originated,  strictly  speaking,  its  modes  of  thought  and 
expression,  and  its  form  of  national  life.  "Wherever  we 
search  we  find  something  still  due  to  the  past ;  a  former  age 
has  bequeathed  its  legacy  of  wisdom  and  experience. 

If,  then,  Eussia  is  able  to  avail  herself  of  the  materials 
which  the  age  affords  her,  and  can  construct  from  them  a 
national  edifice  which  shall  bear  the  impress  of  a  distinct 
national  character,  the  world  must  then  admit  that  she  pos- 
sesses an  originating  power,  and  can  produce  a  Russian 
civilization  which,  in  the  end  perhaps,  will  assume  the  more 
definite,  as  well  as  more  comprehensive  name,  Sclavonian. 
This  she  may  do,  although  the  style  of  her  architecture  and 
dress,  her  manufactures,  tools,  weapons,  etc.,  have  the  Euro- 
pean form.  America  presents  an  example  of  what  is  here 
intended.  Through  forms  which,  with  the  exception  of 
the  political  structure,  are  essentially  European,  there  ap- 
pears an  individual,  an  American  life,  which,  with  each 
succeeding  year,  will  become  more  distinct  and  dominant, 
till  the  ultimate  result  is  reached,  not  an  Anglo-Saxon,  but 
an  American  civilization,  separate  and  peculiar. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  are  continually  reminded 
that  they  are  mere  blind  imitators  of  what  others  perform, 
that  they  have  no  literature,  or  art,  or  science,  of  their  own, 
or  independent  national  life  or  character.  Doubtless  this 
is  to  a  great  extent  true,  or  rather  it  has  been  true.  Still 
it  should  have  been  remembered,  that  nothing  less  than  a 
miracle  on  the  most  extended  scale  could  have  enabled  an 
English  colony,  with  the  task  of  subduing  a  continent  on 
their  hands,  to  present  at  once  all  the  phenomena  of  an 
independent  national  existence.  The  question  should  rather 
have  been,  whether  a  germ  had  been  planted  here,  which, 
in  its  maturity  should  have  not  only  a  territory  but  a  name, 
a  character,  a  history  of  its  own. 

Such  considerations  should  not  be  lost  sight  of  in  form- 
ing an  estimate  of  the  present  condition  and  prospects  of 


F 


THE    CHARACTER  OF   THE   RUSSIAN   INTELLECT.  287 


Russia.    For  although,  if  we  adopt  the  mere  reckoning  of 
years,  Russia  may  be  considered  old,  yet  her  true  national 
career  dates  back  not  more  than  a  hundred  years;  and  in- 
deed it  was  not  until  the  reign  of  Catharine  II.,  that  she 
first  appeared  as  a  great  nation  upon  the  theater  of  Europe. 
At  the  time  of  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth  the 
l  population  of  the  Empire  was  about  twelve  millions,  at  the 
f  death  of  Peter  the  Great,  in  1725,  about  twenty  millions, 
and  at  the  ascension  of  Catharine  IL,  in  1763,  about  twenty- 
j   five  millions.     One  hundred  years,  then,  is  quite  as  long  a 
I   time  as  can  reasonably  be  assigned  as  the  true  national  life 
of  the  Muscovite  nation,  for  the  impulse  given  to  the  nation's 
growth  by  Peter  the  Great  was  subsequently  lost  in  a  great 
degree,  and  the  attempt  to  improve  the  country  was  made 
in  a  new  direction.     It  is  then  quite  too  soon  to  charge 
Russia  with  a  want  of  original  power ;  the  capabilities  of 
the  Sclavonic  race  are  yet  but  in  the  germ. 

In  studying  the  future  of  this  nation,  we  should  regard 
not  so  much  the  Russia  which  now  is,  as  that  which  is  so 
rapidly  forming  itself  from  the  mass  of  accumulated  mate- 
rial. Travelers  have  deceived  themselves  and  misled  othertj 
by  dwelling  upon  and  magnifying  the  fact  of  the  existence 
of  many  races  within  the  limits  of  the  empire,  describing  it 
as  a  mere  aggregation  which  must  soon  fall  asunder.  They 
forget  that  there  has  been  a  rapid  acquisition  of  territory  and 
population,  and  that  sufficient  time  has  not  yet  elapsed  to 
secure  a  complete  consolidation  of  the  mass.  But  had  they 
looked  a  little  beyond  the  external  aspect  of  things,  and 
studied  with  some  care  the  actual  movement  of  the  forces 
fe.  which  shape  the  course  of  the  nation,  they  would  have  dis- 
^  covered  a  central  life  power  which,  with  an  almost  unex- 
ampled energy,  is  diffusing  itself  through  the  whole  national 
mass,  assimilating  or  displacing  whatever  it  touches,  and 
aided  in  its  operations  by  the  settled  policy  of  the  govern- 
ment. They  would  have  discovered  one  dominant  race, 
compacted  by  every  tie  that  can  bind  a  people  together, 
inspired  by  common  hopes  and  a  common  ambition,  wield- 
ing a  power  before  which  all  else  disappears,  either  by 


288  THE   CHARACTER   OF   THE   RUSSIAN  INTELLECT. 

incorporation  or  removal,  and  which,  unless  arrested  by  the 
providence  of  God,  will  inevitably  fill  the  vast  territory  of 
Russia  with  one  single  family,  with  one  language,  one 
literature,  one  government,  and  one  religion. 

Of  the  mental  characteristics  of  this  race,  then,  we  should 
gain,  if  possible,  a  distinct  idea,  in  order  to  estimate  the 
future — ^because  the  future  will  be  the  work  of  their  hands. 
There  are  three  methods  of  estimating  the  mental  charac- 
teristics of  a  people.  They  may  be  studied,  as  exhibited  in 
individuals,  or  in  those  public  manifestations  which  are  the 
expressions  of  national  thought,  or  in  the  characters  of 
those  great  men  who  sometimes  stand  forth  as  the  expon- 
ents of  their  age,  an  individual  expression  of  the  character- 
istics of  a  nation.  The  true  Kussian  possesses  in  an  emi- 
nent degree  energy,  activity,  and  fertility  of  resource.  He 
is  found  in  every  part  of  the  empire,  as  a  merchant,  a  me- 
chanic, a  pedlar,  a  speculator,  and  in  all  society  his  is  the 
ruling  spirit ;  he  is  the  shrewd,  successful  man,  to  whom 
others  give  place — removed  from  his  path  by  superior  skill, 
or  force,  or  fraud,  as  circumstances  seem  to  demand.  So- 
ciety receives  from  him  its  impulse — new  schemes  are 
hatched  in  his  brain — ^he  drives  the  sharpest  bargain — and, 
like  other  sharp  men,  he  overreaches  and  deceives.  Some 
travelers  speak  of  him  in  terms  that  might  have  been  bor- 
rowed from  the  descriptions  given  by  southern  men  of  the 
pedlars  and  clock-sellers  from  l^ew  England.  The  Russian 
universally  thinks  or  says  he  can.  His  disposition  is  to  sur- 
mount obstacles,  or  sweep  them  from  his  path.  He  endures 
the  toil,  and  labors  hopefully  on. 

De  Custine,  who  was  filled  with  true  French  disgust  every 
moment  while  in  Russia,  who  saw  almost  nothing  that  he 
could  approve,  has,  nevertheless,  recorded  this  national 
characteristic  as  a  noble  trait.  He  says,  "  One  of  the  most 
"  attractive  traits  in  their  character,  at  least  in  my  opinion, 
^'is  their  dislike  to  objections;  they  refuse  to  recognise 
"  either  diflaculties  or  obstacles.  "With  his  hatchet  in  his 
"hand,  which  he  never  lays  aside,  a  Russian  peasant 
"  triumphs  over  accidents  and  predicaments  which  would 


THE   CHARACTER   OP   THE   RUSSIAN   INTELLECT.  289 

"  altogetner  stop  the  villagers  of  our  own  provinces,  and  lie 
"  answers  *  yes'  to  everything  that  is  demanded  of  him." 
In  such  a  character  there  are  at  least  the  elements  of  power, 
and  a  capacity  for  progress.  The  native  force  of  the  mind 
may,  in  the  uncultivated  and  unregenerate  man,  hreak  forth 
in  acts  of  unkindness  and  cruelty,  hut  this  same  strength, 
if  properly  directed,  might  also  be  employed  in  creating  a 
national  power  that  would  bless  the  world. 

His  versatility  of  talent  and  power  of  imitation  render 
the  Russian  a  most  successful  scholar,  and  he  makes  rapid 
progress  in  whatever  he  undertakes.  The  raw  recruit  is 
transformed,  in  an  incredibly  short  period,  into  one  per- 
forming correctly  the  evolutions  of  the  regular  soldier,  and 
assumes  with  great  facility  the  air  of  the  camp.  He  is 
capable  of  being  metamorphosed  as  suddenly  into  a  trades- 
man, a  mechanic,  or  a  pedlar.  He  is  crafty,  and  to  a 
remarkable  degree  insinuating  in  his  address,  and  without 
being  distinguished  for  muscular  strength,  is  capable  of 
great  endurance. 

The  Eussian  can  scarcely  be  considered  as  possessing  the 
military  spirit  in  the  ordinary  acceptance  of  that  phrase. 
His  nature  does  not  prompt  him  to  arm  himself  and  sally 
forth  in  quest  of  adventure  and  conquest.  He  is  neither  a 
sea  king,  to  rove  the  seas  for  booty,  nor  a  knight  errant, 
fighting  for  renown  and  the  mere  love  of  battle.  He  plans 
no  revolutionary  uprisings  for  the  rights  of  universal 
humanity.  He  is  more  inclined  to  the  peaceful  arts  of 
agriculture,  manufactures  and  trade,  wherein  his  skill  and 
cunning  can  be  exercised,  and  where  success  is  obtained  by 
superior  activity  and  address  rather  than  by  blows.  As  a 
fighter  he  is  distinguished  more  by  resistance  than  aggres- 
sion. His  enemy  shouts  as  victor  in  the  first  onset,  but  is 
generally  exhausted  by  victory,  and  in  the  end  destroyed. 
He  conquers  not  in  the  assault,  but  in  his  defense. 

The  Eussian  army,  therefore,  has  heretofore  been  far 

more  formidable  at  home  than  abroad.    For  although  the 

Eussian  prefers  peace  to  battle,  he  defends  his  property  and 

his  country  to  the  last  extremity.    !N"o  candid  man  will  fail 

19 


290  THE   CHARACTER   OF   THE   RUSSIAN  INTELLECT. 

to  perceive  that  a  race  possessing  the  qualifications  which 
ohservers  attribute  to  the  true  Russian,  is  capable  of  a 
higher  form  of  civilization  than  the  nation  yet  has  reached. 
Fifty  millions  of  people,  with  these  characteristics,  can  not 
fail  to  make  an  impression  upon  the  world.  And,  although 
the  highest  forms  of  genius  have  not  yet  been  manifested, 
there  are  germs  of  intellectual  power,  whose  future  expan- 
sion may  surpass  the  present  expectations  of  the  world. 
E-ussia  needs  the  development  which  another  century  will 
give  her,  before  her  capabilities  can  be  correctly  estimated. 
The  progress  of  the  nation  for  the  last  hundred  years  cor- 
responds, in  a  remarkable  degree,  to  the  course  of  the  indi- 
vidual Russian.  What  he  is  to  individuals  of  other  races, 
Russia  has  been,  and  is,  to  the  nations  on  her  frontier.  She 
has  made  an  aggressive  progress,  and  without  direct  wars 
of  conquest,  has  continued  to  absorb  one  portion  of  territory 
after  another,  till  she  has  swallowed  up  the  contiguous 
countries,  or  important  portions  of  their  domain. 

Another  method  of  determining  the  mental  qualities  of 
a  people  is  by  observing  the  public  manifestations  of  thought, 
in  which  the  general  mind  of  a  people  will  embody  itself, 
such  as  their  public  works  and  institutions,  their  national 
policy,  the  national  structure  which  becomes  the  exponent 
of  the  popular  thought.  Such  productions  are  often  as- 
cribed to  the  genius  of  the  individual  mind,  and  a  nation  is 
often  regarded  as  the  creation  of  its  great  men,  molded  by 
them  as  clay  in  the  hands  of  the  potter.  But  this  idea 
should  be  received  with  important  qualifications.  The  man 
of  genius,  in  whatever  department  he  moves,  is  in  a  great 
degree  the  exponent  of  national  thought,  which  through 
him  obtains  expression,  and  he  becomes  a  national  favorite 
because  each  one  beholds  at  least  a  partial  revelation  of 
himself.  When  a  great  poet  arises,  it  is  as  if  the  hitherto 
dumb  nation  had  found  its  speech.  Similar  thoughts  had 
long  been  floating  chaotically  through  the  popular  mind — 
thousands  of  hearts  had  been  stirred  with  similar  feelings, 
and  at  last  all  are  delighted  to  find  them  so  well  expressed. 
The  national  soul  has  found  its  interpreter.    Even  when 


¥ 


THE   CHARACTER  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  INTELLECT.  291 

the  poet,  like  Shakspeare,  addresses  himself  to  universal 
humanity,  his  work  still  bears  the  individual  impress  of  his 
nation.  Shakspeare  is  the  poet  of  the  race,  but  his  poem 
is  English  still.  There  was  a  basis  in  the  English  mind  for 
such  a  production  as  his.  Burns  gave  an  articulate  expres- 
sion to  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  the  Scottish  peasantry, 
and  wherever  we  direct  inquiry  an  individual  national  mind 
is  found,  which,  by  the  aid  of  genius,  finds  expression  in 
national  works  and  institutions. 

The  wondrous  creations  which  made  glorious  the  valley 
of  the  Nile,  are  not  to  be  regarded  as  simply  the  concep- 
tions of  individual  artists,  but  as  expressions  of  national 
thought.  The  grandeur  has  clothed  itself  in  Egyptian 
forms,  the  enormous  structures  enshrining  the  vastness  and 
elegance  of  Egyptian  thought.  They  exhibited  the  indi- 
viduality of  the  national  mind.  So  also  the  poets,  the  ora- 
tors, the  statesmen,  the  philosophers,  the  artists  of  Greece, 
were  all  formed  after  a  Grecian  intellectual  model ;  there 
was  a  national  Grecian  soul  that  molded  the  genius  of  the 
individual.  If  we  study  a  nation  as  a  whole,  in  all  its  pro- 
ductions, in  all  its  actions,  in  the  character  and  direction 
of  its  public  efforts,  we  behold  in  them  all  combined  but  the 
legitimate  out-growth  of  the  national  mind,  the  outward 
forms  in  which  the  thought  of  the  nation  has  expressed 
itself — even  as  a  plant  unfolds  itself  from  its  germs. 

Eussia,  when  judged  by  this  standard,  will  neither  ap- 
pear like  a  mere  barbarian  nor  as  only  the  servile  imitator 
of  the  rest  of  Europe.  In  the  national  structure  which  she 
is  erecting  there  are  already  individual  features,  and  a 
largeness  of  conception,  that  give  promise  of  a  future  great- 
ness which  shall  be  known  as  her  own,  bearing  the  impress 
of  the  Kussian  mind.  Her  territorial  idea,  which  she  is  so 
rapidly  working  out,  is  the  grandest  conception  of  the  kind 
of  modern  times — perhaps  of  any  age.  Bonaparte  himself, 
unless  in  some  of  his  day-dreams  of  an  eastern  empire, 
with  its  capital  at  Alexandria  or  Constantinople,  never 
conceived  of  such  a  kingdom  as  that  whose  image  fills  the 
national  mind  of  Russia  as  a  definite  object  of  pursuit,  and 


292  THE   CHARACTER   OF   THE   RUSSIAN  INTELLECT. 

toward  which  she  has  thus  far  made  a  steady  advance. 
There  is  much  more  of  folly  than  of  wisdom  in  sneering  at 
a  nation  which  proposes  for  itself  an  empire  that  rests  one 
broad  wing  on  the  Atlantic,  and  the  other  on  the  Pacific, 
with  one  capital  controlling  the  Baltic  and  the  adjacent 
seas,  and  the  other  on  the  Dardanelles — and  which  has  so 
nearly  converted  her  original  conception,  vast  as  it  is,  into 
a  historic  reality.  There  is  grandeur  even  in  the  thought 
of  such  a  dominion,  and  we  may  well  marvel  how  it  could 
have  originated  with  a  people  that  was  hemmed  in  on  every 
side  by  surrounding  nations  more  powerful  than  themselves, 
without  a  ship,  or  even  a  sea-port ;  but  when  we  behold 
that  secluded  race  expanding  itself  on  every  side,  swelling 
out  to  the  proportions  of  its  great  idea,  devising  the  means 
by  which  it  has  wrought  successfully  on  toward  its  ultimate 
purpose,  until  it  seems  now  to  have  nearly  reached  its  goal, 
in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  Europe,  it  is  far  wiser  to  study 
such  a  fact  than  to  turn  away  with  a  scoff  at  the  "bar- 
barians." 

It  is  simply  absurd  to  deny  that  the  successful  working 
out  of  such  an  idea  is  a  task  which  can  be  executed  only 
by  a  people  capable  of  greatness.  The  morality  of  Russian 
progress  is  no  more  to  be  admired  or  defended  than  are 
the  national  acts  of  the  other  Powers  of  Europe,  or  even 
the  method  of  our  own  growth,  but  viewed  as  a  creation 
of  human  intellect,  and,  throwing  out  of  sight  the  means 
employed,  Russia,  as  she  is,  may  well  challenge  the  respect 
of  the  world.  The  morality  of  her  national  acts  will 
scarcely  sufier  in  comparison  with  that  of  her  civilized 
neighbors.  The  treachery,  fraud,  oppression  and  cruelty 
of  others  do  not,  of  course,  justify  her  own  similar  acts,  but 
England,  France,  and  even  America,  might  well  shed  some 
penitential  tears  over  portions  of  their  own  territory  before 
they  sit  in  judgment  upon  Russia. 

Again,  the  conception  of  her  plan  of  national  defense, 
and  her  execution  of  the  work,  is  an  exhibition  of  the 
character  of  the  Russian  mind.  She  has  not  only  created 
a  powerful  navy,  but  she  has  constructed  for  this  navy  places 


THE   CHARACTER   OP   THE   RUSSIAN  INTELLECT.  293 

of  security,  where  the  two  great  maritime  Powers  of  the 
world  have  not  as  yet,  in  two  campaigns,  been  able  to  touch 
an  important  prize.  She  holds  still  her  naval  treasures 
safe  for  her  future  need.  Her  great  fortifications  have  been 
built  on  a  scale  of  grandeur,  and  have  been  equipped  with 
a  science  which  baffles  as  yet  the  military  skill  of  Europe, 
and  these,  too,  are  exponents  of  the  national  mind,  and  are 
proofs  of  its  capacity.  The  same  vastness  of  idea  charac- 
terizes the  whole  military  establishment  of  the  country,  and 
is  also  stamped  upon  the  schools,  and  indeed  upon  every 
department  of  the  government.  There  is  not  seen  as  yet, 
perhaps,  a  perfect  adaptation  of  part  to  part  in  the  great 
machine,  but  there  is  a  largeness  of  idea  that  gives  promise 
of  a  most  imposing  future. 

The  idea  so  often  insisted  upon,  that  all  this  is  the  work 
of  foreigners,  is  as  puerile  as  that  with  which  England 
pleased  herself  so  long,  that  our  naval  victories  were  won 
by  the  valor  of  English  sailors  on  board  our  ships.  Russia 
is  doubtless  largely  indebted  to  foreign  science  and  skill, 
and  so  also  is  America.  But  this  foreign  aid  has  only 
served,  in  both  countries,  to  assist  the  growth  of  the  native 
mind,  and  the  foreign  effort  has  been  shaped  by  the  national 
model.  With  all  the  assistance  which  has  been  rendered, 
Russia  is  not  a  foreign  nation,  and  America  is  American 
still.  The  diplomacy  of  a  nation  also  affords  a  criterion 
whereby  to  judge  of  national  capabilities.  Russian  intel- 
lect has  long  been  tested  in  the  councils  of  Europe  in  its 
encounter  with  the  most  cultivated  and  distinguished  men 
of  the  surrounding  nations,  and  no  one  has  yet  pretended 
that  the  diplomatic  agents  of  the  Czar  have  been  deficient 
in  talent  or  skill,  or  that  they  have  been  wanting  in  success. 

On  the  contrary,  Russia  has  enlarged  and  enriched  her- 
self more  by  her  skill  in  negotiation  than  by  the  conquests 
of  her  armies.  She  is,  it  is  true,  largely  accused  of  dupli- 
city, and  even  fraud  and  bribery,  but  until  the  hands  of 
other  Powers  have  been  somewhat  cleansed,  such  charges 
may  be  regarded,  perhaps,  as  an  expression  of  those  who 
have  been  losers  in  a  game  where  all  parties  alike  were 


294  THE   CHARACTER  OP   THE   RUSSIAN  INTELLECT. 


endeavoring  to  play  witli  marked  cards  and  loaded  dice. 
Had  Russia  possessed  no  capacity  but  such  as  manifests 
itself  in  treachery  and  cunning,  a  lofty  and  unspotted  in- 
tegrity on  the  part  of  the  other  Powers  might  have  baffled 
her  long  ago ;  but  there  is  much  reason  for  believing  that 
the  Czar  and  his  ministers  have  merely  foiled  the  neigh- 
boring cabinets  in  the  use  of  their  own  weapons.  Russian 
diplomacy,  it  must  be  confessed,  is  not  distinguished  for 
frankness  and  integrity,  but  it  certainly  evinces  great  saga- 
city and  consummate  skill,  while  it  is  not  easy  to  show 
that  in  her  political  morality  she  has  fallen  below  the  stand- 
ard of  her  cotemporaries.  The  vast  conception  of  an  empire 
which  she  holds  steadily  before  her  mind,  and  which  by 
gigantic  effort  she  has  well-nigh  realized,  her  immense  mili- 
tary system,  with  the  resources  she  has  accumulated,  the 
science  and  skill  evinced  in  her  admirable  schools  and  other 
governmental  institutions,  the  style  of  her  one  modern  city, 
and  the  success  of  her  diplomacy,  are  all  so  many  witnesses 
that  indicate  the  power  and  the  characteristics  of  Russian 
mind. 

The  Russian  empire,  as  it  now  is,  huge,  imposing,  im- 
pregnable as  it  seems  as  yet  to  be,  is  the  production  of 
Russian  thought,  as  truly  as  was  the  Egyptian  or  G-recian 
civilization  the  proper  out- growth  of  the  national  mind. 
The  national  idea  is  one  of  grand  proportions ;  it  has  taken 
full  possession  of  the  public  thought,  and  it  lies  clearly  de- 
fined even  before  the  mind  of  the  Russian  peasant.  It  has 
shaped  itself  into  a  settled  public  policy,  and  this  policy  is 
the  expression  of  the  desires,  and  hopes,  and  determinations 
of  the  great  Russian  family.  Russia  gravitates  by  a  law 
of  her  national  life  toward  Constantinople;  her  never- 
ceasing  endeavor  is  to  realize  the  national  conception  of  the 
empire,  and  in  all  her  operations  she  has  exhibited  a  capa- 
city for  enlarged  thought,  a  power  of  extensive  combina- 
tion, and  a  skillful  adaptation  of  means  to  ends,  not  second 
to  any  Power  in  Europe.  If  she  is  still  to  be  considered 
only  as  a  barbarian  nation,  then,  in  some  important  branches, 
civilization  may  well  become  the  pupil  of  barbarism. 


» 


THE   CHARACTER   OP   THE   RUSSIAN  INTELLECT.  295 

Another  method  of  determining  ths  characteristics  of  a 
race,  and  of  measuring  its  capabilities,  is  by  studying  its 
great  men.  A  truly  great  man  is  the  exponent  of  his  age 
and  nation.  He  combines  in  himself  the  chief  qualities  of 
his  race.  In  the  youth  of  a  nation  a  great  man  is  in  him- 
self a  prediction  and  guaranty  of  national  greatness ;  in  its 
manhood  he  represents  his  coun.try  as  she  is ;  in  its  decay 
he  is  but  a  proud  memorial  of  the  past.  Thus  Hildebrand 
was  the  true  prophet  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  He 
first  conceived  and  clearly  defined  the  great  idea  which  has 
since  been  the  center  of  its  life,  and  shape,  and  growth. 
Charlemagne  was  the  individual  expression  of  his  age. 
Alexander  was  the  true  exponent  of  the  Macedonian  thought. 
Louis  XIY.  was  the  embodied  France  of  that  age,  and 
Chatham  exhibited  England  in  her  proudest  hour ;  and  the 
men  of  the  American  Revolution  were  predictions  of  the 
American  future.  In  the  same  manner  Mcholas  may  be 
regarded  as  the  true  exponent  of  Russia  as  she  is,  and  the 
earnest  of  what  she  will  become.  He  was  not  only  thor- 
oughly Russian  in  feeling  and  aims,  but  he  so  combined 
in  himself  the  chief  qualities  of  Russian  character  as  to  Be 
a  true  representative  of  his  nation,  and  Russia  may  be  pro- 
perly studied  in  him.  He  was  more  thoroughly  Russian 
than  any  other  man  in  the  empire,  though  his  family  was 
in  part  of  German  origin. 

But  the  future  of  Russia  will  be  shaped  not  alone  by 
Russians,  but  by  the  combined  power  of  the  great  Sclavonic 
■  .  race,  organized  around  a  common  center,  and  working  out 
the  problem  of  a  common  national  life. 


296  TBRRITORIAL  PROGRESS  OF  RUSSIA. 


CHAPTER    XXVII 


TEREITOETAL  PROGRESS  OF  RUSSIA. 


In  connection  witli  these  observations  upon  the  charac- 
teristics of  Russian  mind,  it  is  interesting  to  consider  the 
actual  progress  of  the  Empire,  and  observe  whether  it  cor- 
responds to  these  supposed  capabilities  of  the  race,  and  in 
what  direction  the  national  effort  has  been  made.  It  will 
be  seen  that  the  policy  of  the  nation  has  been  steadily 
shaped  toward  certain  definite  aims,  that  have  not  been  lost 
sight  of  at  least  for  a  hundred  years,  while  Mcholas  has 
been  the  first  to  conceive  a  truly  national  scheme  fittted  to 
accomplish  the  national  purpose.  This  purpose  embraced 
several  distinct  points,  viz  :  general  territorial  enlargement, 
the  control  of  the  Baltic  and  the  adjacent  seas,  the  control  of 
the  Black  Sea  and  the  Dardanelles,  an  outlet  for  her  Sibe- 
rian possessions  on  the  Pacific,  and  a  station  there  for  a 
great  eastern  naval  depot  for  a  Pacific  fleet  and  the  East 
Indian  commerce.  In  1452,  at  the  time  of  the  fall  of  the 
Greek  Empire,  the  territory  of  Russia  was  estimated  at  a 
little  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  square  miles,  not 
quite  equal  to  four  States  the  size  of  Illinois,  and  its  popu- 
lation was  only  about  six  millions.     It  had  not  a  single 


TERRITOBIAL  PROGRESS  OF  RUSSIA.  297 

seaport,  nor  any  independent  method  of  communication 
with  the  commerce  of  the  world.  At  the  accession  of  Peter 
the  Great,  in  1689,  the  territory  had  been  increased  to 
nearly  four  millions  of  square  miles,  while  the  population 
was  still  but  fifteen  millions.  At  the  present  time  her  ter-  , 
ritory  is  considered  to  be  equal  to  about  seven  millions 
square  miles,  and  her  population  is  variously  estimated  from 
seventy  millions  to  eighty  millions.  The  following  account 
of  the  steps  of  Russian  progress  is  taken  from  Alison's 
History  of  Europe : 

1721. — The  battle  of  Pultowa  and  the  treaty  of  l!^eustadt 
gave  the  Russians  the  province  of  Livonia,  and  the 
site  where  Cronstadt  and  St.  Petersburgh  now  stand. 
>  1772. — The  frontier  of  the  Empire,  on  the  side  of  Poland, 
was  brought  down  to  the  Dwina  and  the  Dnieper. 
1774. — By  the  treaty  of  Kainardji,  the  Muscovite  standard 
I  .        was  brought  down  to  the  Crimea  and  the  Sea  of  Azoff. 
I:  At  about  the  same  time  acquisitions  from  Tartary  were 

^^'  made,  larger  than  the  whole  German  Empire. 

1783. — The  Russian  sway  was  extended  over  the  Crimea, 
and  the  vast  plains  which  stretch  between  the  Euxine 
and  the  Caspian,  as  far  as  the  foot  of  the  Caucasus. 
1792. — The  treaty  of  Jassy  advanced  the  frontier   to  the 
Dniester,  and  Odessa  was  brought  beneath  their  rule. 
m  1793. — In  this  year  they  obtained  command  of  Lithuania. 
K  1794. — The  Russians  extended  their  frontier  to  the  Vistula, 
He        and  nearly  half  of  the  old  kingdom  of  Poland  was 
■^^       obtained.     The  peace  of  Tilsit  rounded  their  eastern 
frontier  by  a  considerable  province. 
1809. — Russia  attained  the  whole  of  Finland,  as  far  as  the 

Gulf  of  Bothnia. 
1812. — Her  southern  frontier  was  extended  to  the  Pruth, 
and  she  gained  partial  possession  of  the  mouths  of  the 
Danube. 


298  TERRITORIAL   PROGRESS   OF   RUSSIA. 

1800  to  1814. — Many  conquests  were  made  from  the  Per- 
sians and  Circassians,  and  Georgia  obtained. 

1815. — The  Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw  was  added  to  the 
Empire. 

1828.— The  Araxes  became  the  southern  frontier  of  their 
Asiatic  territories. 

1834. — The  Dardanelles  were  closed  to  armed  vessels,  and 
the  Black  Sea  was  open  only  to  her  ships  of  war; 
and  whether  France  and  England  will  succeed  in 
holding  open  the  gates  of  the  Euxine,  or  whether  they 
will  be  closed  forever  against  them,  remains  yet  to  be 
seen. 

Since  the  above  dates,  additional  territory  has  been 
obtained  in  Poland;  a  province  has  been  gained  from 
China,  on  the  Pacific,  which  gives  Russia  the  command 
of  the  river  Amoor,  navigable  in  the  direction  of  south- 
eastern Siberia,  for  more  than  two  thousand  miles,  and  af- 
fording a  most  important  naval  station  at  its  mouth. 

Such  has  been  the  actual  progress  of  Pussia,  and  such 
is  her  present  position.  "With  her  position,  resources,  and 
means  of  defense  sufficient  to  arrest  the  combined  power 
of  France  and  England  at  one  of  her  outposts,  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  understand  how  a  reasonable  man  can  entertain 
the  idea  that  Russia  can  now  be  persuaded  or  compelled 
to  abandon  the  settled  policy  which  is  interwoven  with 
the  thoughts  and  desires  of  the  whole  nation,  surrender 
those  advantages  which  it  has  cost  the  labor  of  a  cen- 
tury, and  an  immense  expenditure  of  life  and  treasure 
to  obtain,  and  give  up  the  very  purposes  for  which  the 
Russian  government  exists. 

Russia  has  too  strong  a  faith  in  her  national  mission, 
to  be  easily  checked  in  her  career,  or  to  be  turned  per- 
manently aside  from  the  line  of  her  nation's  march.  The 
demands  which  the  Allies  made  upon  her,  required  a  com- 
plete revolution  in  her  national  policy,  the  surrender  of 
her  settled  scheme  of  Empire.    They  asked,  indeed,  that 


TERRITORIAL   PROGRESS   OF   RUSSIA. 


299 


f 


modern  Russia  should  cease  to  exist,  and  that  the  Empire 
should  be  rolled  back  a  hundred  years  in  policy  and  posi- 
tion, and  should  return  to  its  former  state  of  seclusion. 
France  and  England  virtually  demanded  that  E-ussia 
should  retire  from  the  field  of  Europe,  and  yield  the  con- 
trol of  the  world  to  them ;  and  it  may  be  safely  predicted, 
that  the  Muscovite  will  never  do  this  while  he  has  people 
and  arms. 


300  RUSSIA  AIMS  AT  A  CIVIUZATION 


CHAPTER   XXVIII 


RUSSIA  AIMS  AT  A  CIVILIZATION  DISTINCT  FEOM  THAT  OF  WESTERN 

EUROPE. 


The  popular  opinion  concerning  Eussia  may,  perhaps,  be 
expressed  in  a  single  sentence — her  government  is  a  hor- 
rible despotism,  and  she  is  the  determined  foe  of  liberty, 
the  chief  barrier  to  European  progress.  This  assumption 
underlies  all  the  attempts  which  have  been  made,  both  in 
Europe  and  America,  to  arouse  against  her  the  indignation 
of  the  world.  Another  outcry  was  popular  on  both  sides  of 
the  Atlantic,  that  the  ferocious  I^orthern  Bear  was  about 
to  seize  and  devour  the  Lamb  of  Turkey,  and  an  armed 
world  was  bound  to  rush  to  the  rescue.  If  this  were  disin- 
terested benevolence,  if  those  who  raised  the  cry  were  not 
BO  anxious  to  be  the  guardians  of  the  lamb  for  the  sake  of 
the  fleece,  or  to  appropriate  it  entirely  to  their  own  use,  it 
would  be  entitled  to  more  respect.  But  if  the  lion  wars 
against  the  bear  merely  because  he  desires  the  prey  himself, 
it  is  not  needful,  on  this  account,  that  American  sympathies 
should  be  strongly  excited.  Another  English  charge  against 
Russia  is  made  more  particularly  for  home  consumption. 
It  is  that  Russia  will  not  consent  to  adopt  the  free  trade 
system,  and  render  herself,  on  that  account,  a  huge  depend- 
ency of  England,  but  insists  on  protecting  her  own  industry, 
and  applies  herself  to  the  steady  development  of  her  own 


DISTINCT    FROM   THAT   OF   WESTERN  EUROPE.  301 

resources.  Russia  thus  threatens  to  become  the  competitor 
of  England  in  the  markets  of  the  world,  and  so  England 
sends  forth  her  fleets  and  armies  in  the  name  of  progress 
and  liberty  to  cripple  and  arrest  her  too  rapid  growth. 

The  charge  that  Russia  is  a  cold-hearted  despotism,  and 
that  she  is  the  chief  opponent  of  European  civilization, 
should  be  studied  in  the  light  of  some  facts  which  seem  to 
have  received  little  attention  from  many  of  those  who  are 
striving  to  stir  up  the  human  race  against  her.  She  is 
shaping  a  civilization  of  her  own,  distinct  from  that  of 
western  Europe,  based  on  a  separate  idea,  and  intended  for 
a  separate  race,  and  in  connection  with  a  distinct  form  of 
religion.  The  value  of  this,  her  national  conception,  can 
only  be  estimated  by  studying  carefully  the  genius  of  her 
own  people,  and  also  the  condition  of  the  rest  of  Europe, 
and  the  character  of  the  influences  by  which  the  western 
nations  are  controlled.  The  system  of  Russia  is  intended 
for  a  separate  and  peculiar  race ;  her  national  idea  is  not 
only  Sclavonic  in  its  origin,  but  it  is  Sclavonic  also  in  its 
design.  It  is  a  home  system,  a  family  institution  on  a 
great  scale,  which  she  wishes  to  conduct  upon  a  model  of 
her  own  ;  and  before  she  is  utterly  condemned,  it  would  be 
well  to  take  a  calm  survey  of  the  actual  state  of  affairs  of 
Europe.  Three  distinct  forms  of  civilization  are  at  this 
moment  struggling  for  pre-eminence  on  the  field  of  western 
Europe — the  Papal,  which  allies  itself  to  civil  despotism ; 
the  infidel  democratic ;  and  the  Protestant,  which  connects 
itself  with  the  idea  of  constitutional  liberty.  These  three 
systems  are  quite  distinct  from  each  other  in  theory,  and 
are  separate  as  actual  movements,  though  the  friends  of 
each  are  not  yet  drawn  into  separate  communities. 

It  is  necessary  to  study  the  character  of  each  of  these 
forces,  now  contending  for  the  mastery  in  western  Europe, 
before  we  can  be  prepared  to  form  an  accurate  opinion  of 
the  policy  of  Russia.  The  central  idea  of  the  Papacy,  upon 
which  the  whole  system  is  based,  is  this :  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church  is  the  one  only  true  church  of  the  world — that 
out  of  her  pale  there  neither  is  nor  can  be  salvation — ^that 


302  RUSSIA  AIMS   AT   A   CIVILIZATION 

to  her,  as  the  one  true  church,  belongs  the  supreme  power 
of  the  world,  vested  in  her  head,  the  Pope — and  that  he, 
reigning  in  the  stead,  and  by  the  authority  of  Jesus  Christ 
himself,  is  the  rightful  king  of  kings,  and  that  he,  at  his 
pleasure,  may  plant  or  subvert  all  civil  power,  as  subserv- 
ient to  the  proper  authority  of  the  church ;  and  that  it  is 
his  duty  to  overthrow  every  government  which  rejects  the 
Roman  Catholic  communion,  because  it  is  heretical.  In- 
fallible in  doctrine,  she  claims  it  to  be  her  duty  to  prescribe 
a  faith  for  all  men,  and  she  considers  the  mission  of  the 
Romish  Church  to  be  to  stretch  its  scepter  over  all  the 
earth,  to  embrace  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  in  one 
universal  monarchy,  of  which  she,  by  the  appointment  of 
God  himself,  is  the  rightful  head.  This  may  be  called  the 
"  Bill  of  Rights"  of  the  Catholic  Church,  the  Magna  Charta 
which  she  has  granted  to  the  nations — the  right  to  be 
governed  in  all  things,  temporal  and  spiritual,  by  the  Pope, 
the  heaven-appointed  head  of  the  one  true  church. 

A  right  granted  to  all  kings  to  receive  their  crowns  at 
his  hands,  and  from  all  men  in  authority  to  derive  their 
authority  from  him,  and  the  right  to  be  punished  as  here- 
tics if  they  assert  the  right  of  private  judgment  or  of  inde- 
pendent government.  This  is  the  one  unchangeable  idea 
of  the  Papacy — the  essential  nucleus  of  her  system,  the 
center  of  its  life — ^to  reign  supreme  over  all  the  world,  as 
the  true  representative  of  Jesus  Christ,  ruling  in  his  stead, 
and  wielding  his  authority  as  lord  of  lords  and  king  of 
kings.  This  idea,  from  the  time  it  was  first  proclaimed  by 
Hildebrand,  has  never  been  abandoned,  never  lost  sight  of 
in  her  darkest  hours,  never  despaired  of  amid  her  sorest 
defeats.  This  scheme,  which  seems  worthy  both  of  the  in- 
tellect and  pride  of  the  lost  archangel  himself,  is  pressed  at 
this  time,  with  fresh  activity  and  zeal,  upon  the  attention 
of  the  world ;  and  it  presents  a  very  grave  subject  of  thought 
that,  in  this  nineteenth  century,  when,  according  to  the 
boast  of  some,  the  world  has  passed  so  far  beyon^d  the 
reach  of  every  form  of  superstition,  the  renewal  of  the 
most  absurd  pretension  of  the  Catholic  Church,  instead  of 


K/r     inc. 


JNIVERSITY  ; 

OF  / 

:INCT  FROM  THAT  OF   WESTERN  EUROPE.  oOo 


repelling  all  men  from  her,  is  adding  to  her  popularity  and 
strength.  It  has  not  been  without  a  profound  knowledge 
of  human  character,  that  the  leaders  of  the  Papacy  have 
put  forth  the  new  dogma  of  the  Immaculate  Conception. 
It  is  not  the  offspring  of  a  mere  puerile  conceit,  but  of  a 
clear-seeing  sagacity,  which,  knowing  the  weakness  of  men, 
uses  it  for  its  own  purposes,  and  which  understands  per- 
fectly that  no  mere  intellectual  progress,  no  influence  of 
what  we  call  modern  improvement  can,  of  themselves,  save 
men  from  the  grossest  superstition,  or  secure  them  against 
the  vilest  imposture  of  a  religious  character. 

So  far  as  mere  worldly  policy  is  concerned,  the  Eoman 
Catholic  Church  is  wise  in  assuming  the  loftiest  ground  of 
Hildebrand,  and  the  Innocents.  The  very  loftiness  of  her 
demands,  bordering  even  upon  absurdity,  will  secure  the 
respect  and  belief  of  thousands.  The  same  world  that 
scoffs  at  moderate  pretensions  is  inclined  to  worship  the 
man  that  resolutely  persists  in  declaring  himself  a  god.  In 
reviving,  therefore,  the  most  preposterous  demand  of  their 
church  in  the  middle  ages,  and  in  adding  thereto  the  new 
dogma  of  the  Immaculate  Conception,  the  leaders  of  the 
Papacy  are  really  playing  a  safer  game  with  the  credulity 
of  the  world  than  if  they  had  moderated  their  pretensions. 
The  Romish  Church,  as  a  mere  religious  denomination, 
one  church  among  many,  is  simply  a  contemptible  juggler, 
that  could  not  command  the  respect  of  the  lowest;  but 
that  same  church,  expanded  to  the  gigantic  proportions  of 
the  rightfal  ruler  of  the  world,  walking  in  queenly  robes, 
and  wearing  the  triple  crown,  demanding  homage  and  obe- 
dience as  the  vicegerent  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  will  excite  won- 
der and  fear,  and  even  the  spirit  of  worship,  though  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  and  amid  railroads,  and  printing-presses, 
and  telegraphs. 

A  church  that  proposes  to  stoop  to  the  level  of  human 
reason,  and  make  herself  and  her  doctrines  fully  under- 
stood by  the  unregenerate  mind,  will  obtain  such  measure 
of  regard  as  the  rationalist  is  willing  to  bestow — no  more. 
But  a  church  that  throws  itself  above  reason,  that  com- 


304  RUSSIA   AIMS   AT   A   CIVILIZATION 

• 

mands  the  obedience  of  reason,  in  the  name  of  God,  will 
make  even  the  philosopher  tremble.  For  this  reason,  we 
often  behold  some  proud  and  lofty  intellect  rejecting  the 
truths  of  salvation  as  taught  by  the  Protestant  Church, 
yielding  itself  to  the  pretensions  of  Romanism,  or  mastered 
by  a  pride  and  audacity  superior  to  its  own.  To  abate  one 
tittle  of  her  proudest  claims  would  be  fatal  to  the  Romish 
Church. 

The  strong  reactionary  movement  of  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic Church  throughout  Christendom  is  one  of  the  most  sig- 
nificant facts  of  the  present  time.  A  short  time  since,  it 
seemed  as  if  her  power  was  broken  forever.  She  appeared 
to  be  not  only  at  the  mercy  of  the  people,  but  to  be  rejected 
by  them  and  doomed  to  destruction.  The  Pope  fled  before 
the  revolutionary  wave,  and  most  perhaps  supposed  that 
the  long-predicted  overthrow  of  the  Papacy  had  finally 
come.  It  seemed  altogether  improbable  that  its  influence 
could  be  again  restored,  and  many  looked  for  the  speedy 
triumph  of  Protestantism  in  Europe.  l!^ow,  that  Papal 
power  has  not  only  arisen  from  its  apparent  defeat,  but  is 
wielding  at  this  moment  the  controlling  influence  of  western 
Europe ;  scorning  all  companionship  with  the  world  that 
attacked  her,  she  re-asserts  all  the  proudest  claims  of  the 
church  in  the  hour  when  monarchs  bowed  before  her,  and 
has  made  a  great  and  skillful  eflTort  for  the  recovery  of  her 
supremacy  over  the  nations.  Once  more  her  Jesuits  are 
busy  in  embroiling  the  world.  In  Jerusalem,  at  Constan- 
tinople, in  the  court  of  France,  they  fan  the  fires  of  strife, 
and  direct  the  western  Powers  upon  Russia.  The  jealousy, 
ambition,  and  pride  of  England,  are  successfully  played 
upon,  until  she  marches  her  armies  under  the  guidance  of  a 
Papal  flag,  while  every  efifort  is  made  to  win  the  nation  as 
a  whole  back  to  the  support  of  the  Pope. 

In  the  United  States  a  well  concerted  and  persevering 
attack  is  made  upon  the  very  life  of  American  Protestant 
institutions ;  the  money  of  Europe  is  freely  used  for  our 
overthrow ;  the  strife  of  parties  is  employed  to  weaken  the 
national  sentiment ;  the  same  spirit  which  has  directed  the 


DISTINCT  FROM   THAT   OF  WESTERN  EUROPE.  305 

armies  of  France  and  England  upon  Russia,  is  excited  in 
regard  to  our  own  country,  and  there  wants  but  the  fitting 
opportunity,  and  we  may  expect  an  armed  attack  origin- 
ating in  the  same  motives  which  gave  rise  to  the  war  on 
Russia.  The  Papal  power  is  in  the  ascendancy  in  the  coun- 
cils of  western  Europe,  and  all  influences  tend  swiftly  to  a 
combination  of  the  Latin  nations,  with  France  to  lead 
them,  on  which  new  union  of  these  civil  Powers  the  Papal 
throne  will  rest  once  more,  for  a  time  at  least,  securely. 
This  is  one  of  the  forms  of  civilization  which  are  now  in 
conflict  with  each  other  in  Europe.  Its  ambition  is  as  wide 
as  the  globe,  it  aims  at  nothing  less  than  the  supreme 
dominion  over  all  nations.  History  records  the  means 
which  it  has  been  accustomed  to  employ  to  secure  its  ends, 
and  these  same  methods  it  will  use  again  when  occasion 
offers,  with  whatever  new  instrumentalities  the  modern 
world  is  able  to  supply.  What  this  power  can  do  for  the 
world  is  already  known. 

The  condition  of  society  where  the  Papacy  has  had  un- 
disputed sway  is  too  clearly  marked  to  admit  of  a  mistake. 
The  sickening  monuments  of  her  misrule  stand  thick  upon- 
the  earth.  Liberty  has  been  crushed,  public  and  private- 
morality  has  been  destroyed,  industry  has  been  crippled,, 
and  thought  has  been  repressed.  Yet,  inexplicable  as  it 
may  appear,  upon  any  theory  of  the  supposed  advance 
which  the  human  mind  has  made  in  these  days  of  light 
and  philosophy,  the  nations  are  rallying  once  more,  in  an 
unexpected  manner,  around  the  Papal  throne.  There  may 
be  much  which  is  merely  political  in  the  movement,  but 
there  is  nothing  in  the  moral  or  mental  condition  of  Europe 
which  forbids  the  idea  that  the  Papacy  may  yet  bind  the 
people  of  the  west  of  Europe  by  an  earnest  faith  in  her 
pretensions.  The  science,  and  steam,  and  railroads,  and 
printing  presses  of  the  nineteenth  century  have  not  lifted 
men  above  the  influence  of  superstition  or  religious  impos- 
ture. On  the  contray,  just  in  proportion  as  man  recedes 
from  the  true  light  and  God,  in  his  liability  to  embrace 
false  religion,  and  there  is  but  a  step  between  the  present 
20 


306  RUSSIA   AIMS   AT   A   CIVILIZATION 

infidelity  of  Europe  and  the  blindest  superstitions  of  tho 
Roman  Catholic  Church. 

Against  the  Papal  form  of  civilization  Russia  would  be 
strongly  and  watchfully  opposed,  from  two  principal  con- 
siderations :  first,  since  the  separation  of  the  original  church 
into  the  Latin  and  Greek  churches,  the  Papal  power  has 
waged  constant  warfare  upon  the  Greek  church,  and  has 
left  no  measure  untried  to  move  or  force  it  into  subjection 
to  the  Papal  scepter.  The  quarrel  between  the  two  churches 
has  been  carried  on  for  almost  a  thousand  years  ;  it  is  bitter 
and  irreconcileable.  Russia,  as  the  present  head  or  repre- 
sentative of  the  Greek  church,  is  the  inheritor  of  this  an- 
cient religious  war,  and  of  course,  would  regard  with  watch- 
ful jealousy  any  movement  of  the  ancient  enemy  of  her 
ancient  mother  church,  and  now  equally  an  enemy  to  her- 
self. More  especially  would  the  Russian  government  guard 
itself  against  the  power  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church  in 
the  latter  portion  of  the  reign  of  ^N'icholas,  when  the  move- 
ment among  the  Latin  nations  in  favor  of  the  Papacy  has 
been  so  marked,  and  when  a  disposition  has  been  growing 
in  England  unfriendly  to  Russia,  and  a  tendency  to  unite 
with  the  Papal  Powers  against  her.  The  Roman  Catholic 
church  is. not  only  the  most  bitter  foe  of  Russia,  as  head  of 
the  Greek  church,  but  she  has  been  busy  in  arraying  west- 
ern Europe  for  the  overthrow  of  the  power  of  the  Czar. 
Russia  stands  in  opposition  to  the  Papacy  from  the  neces- 
sity of  self-preservation. 

The  very  same  feeling  which  has  roused  the  American 
mind  in  regard  to  the  Papal  Power  and  its  designs  and 
aggressions,  has  excited  the  Russian  nation  also,  and 
with  far  more  reason,  for  the  attacks  upon  Russia  have 
been  more  palpable  and  open  :  it  was  but  too  evident  that 
Rome  was  aiming  at  the  prosperity  and  even  the  life  of 
Russia,  and  therefore  Mcholas  was  on  his  guard.  The 
sense  of  danger,  and  the  necessity  of  uniting  his  people  for 
self-defense  by  the  power  of  one  national  faith,  induced 
Nicholas  to  separate  some  Russian  communities  from  a 
union  with  the  Roman  Catholic  church,  and  this  has  been 


DISTINCT    FROM   THAT   OF  WESTERN  EUROPE.  307 

denounced  as  bigotry  and  intolerance.  The  Edinburgh  Be^ 
view,  for  April  1855,  says ;  "  He  gave  a  persecuting  charac- 
"  ter  to  the  Russian  church,  and  waged  a  war  of  a  san- 
"  guinary  character  against  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  in 
"Poland."  If  a  man  is  justified  in  defending  his  home 
from  the  intrigues  of  a  spy,  or  the  meditated  violence  of  an 
enemy,  then  is  the  Russian  government  not  to  be  blamed 
for  repelling  everywhere  in  its  dominions  the  influence  of 
the  Papacy. 

The  Czar  was  not  blind  to  the  character  or  designs  of  the 
Papal  church,  nor  of  the  obvious  tendency  of  affairs  in 
Europe,  and  one  necessary  preparation  for  the  blow  which 
has  been  at  last  struck  at  Russia,  was  to  exclude  as  far  as 
possible  Catholic  influences  from  his  dominions.  There 
was  no  other  safe  course  left  for  him  to  pursue.  As  a  sov- 
ereign and  protector  of  the  interests  of  a  vast  country,  he 
was  bound  to  protect  her  against  the  presence  and  machi- 
nations of  his  country's  hereditary,  most  active,  and  most 
bitter  foe.  If  he  performed  his  duty  with  severity  or  cru- 
elty, for  this  he  should  be  held  responsible ;  but  Americans, 
who  are  themselves  awaking  to  a  sense  of  the  necessity  of 
destroying  the  influence  of  the  Papacy  in  the  United  States, 
or  run  the  risk  of  destruction  at  its  hands,  will  never  join 
in  an  outcry  against  the  Czar,  because  he  was  not  disposed 
to  permit  the  Papal  Power  to  provide  the  means  of  annoy- 
ance or  injury  within  his  own  dominions.  IN'icholas  knew 
full  well  that  no  art  of  Jesuitism  would  be  left  untried  to 
excite  the  spirit  of  dissatisfaction  and  to  stir  up  revolt  among 
his  Polish  subjects,  and  with  the  enemy  nourished  and 
sheltered  in  the  bosom  of  Poland,  how  could  he  be  pre- 
pared for  that  attack  which  he  knew  sooner  or  later  would 
come  from  western  Europe.  "With  a  strong  Papal  influ- 
ence in  Poland,  where  would  now  be  the  security  of  Russia 
in  that  portion  of  her  territory,  and  how  soon  the  Allied 
Powers  would  be  able  to  kindle  there  the  fires  of  insur- 
rection. 

A  sound  and  justifiable  policy  dictated  the  exclusion  of 
all  Papal  influence  from  the  dominions  of  Russia,  and 


308  RUSSIA  AIMS   AT  A  CIVILIZATION 

Americans,  instead  of  condemning  the  Czar  for  the  use  of 
any  proper  measures  for  obtaining  security  from  Jesuitical 
schemes,  would  show  a  statesmanlike  wisdom  if  they 
should  look  more  narrowly  than  ever  at  the  intrigues  and 
designs  of  the  Papacy  here. 

A  second  phase  of  civilization  in  Europe  is  the  form 
aimed  at  by  the  revolutionary  movement — that  which  seeks 
the  establishment  of  Democratic  institutions.  To  this, 
doubtless,  Nicholas  was  inflexibly  opposed,  and  therefore 
he  is  denounced  as  the  foe  to  progress,  and  the  enemy  of 
freedom.  To  favor  this  idea,  England  and  France  are 
guilty  of  the  mockery  of  inscribing  Liberty  on  their  ban- 
ners when  they  march  against  the  Muscovite.  However 
strongly  the  Czar  may  be  opposed  to  Republican  institu- 
tions, he  is  fully  matched  in  this  opposition  by  Louis  Napo- 
leon and  the  English  nobility,  while  the  hatred  of  the  latter 
of  any  rule  of  the  people,  any  form  of  truly  popular  insti- 
tutions, is  more  cordial  than  that  of  the  Czar  himself.  Let 
the  candid  American  reader  once  place  himself  in  the 
position  of  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  let  him  look  out  on 
the  revolutionary  spirit  of  Europe  from  his  point  of  view, 
and  then  he  will  be  able  better  to  understand,  if  he  does 
not  approve,  the  motives  of  the  Czar  in  opposing  the 
democratic  movement,  as  earnestly  as  he  does  the  power 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  In  the  first  place,  it  should 
be  considered  that  an  American  starts  with  a  deceitful  as- 
sumption in  regard  to  the  democratic  movement  in  Europe. 
He  very  naturally  looks  upon  those  engaged  in  it  as  he 
would  upon  so  many  Americans  seeking  a  rational  liberty 
embodied  in  republican  forms,  such  as  that  for  which  our 
fathers  toiled  and  died.  But  American  Protestant  repub- 
licanism is  a  widely  different  theory  from  that  of  European 
democracy.  Let  this  difference  be  borne  in  mind,  and  let 
it  be  remembered  also,  that  while  Russia  has  steadily 
opposed  European  democracy  she  has  been  as  uniformly 
the  friend  of  America,  and  perhaps  the  motives  of  the  Em- 
peror may  then  be  better  understood.  A  firm,  undoubting 
religious  faith,  and  a  regard  for  properly  constituted  autho- 


DISTINCT   FROM   THAT   OP    WESTERN   EUROPE.  309 

rity,  are  among  the  controling  ideas  of  the  Eussian  mind. 
This  faith  is  doubtless  obscured  by  superstition,  but  still  it 
is  faith,  though  blindfolded  and  led  astray,  a  faith  strong 
enough  to  form  one  of  the  mightiest  elements  of  national 
power.  The  respect  for  authority  is  also  allied  to  a  blind 
reverence  even  for  despotism,  but  then  every  Christian 
mind  will  acknowledge  that  without  these  elements,  viz  : 
a  religious  faith,  and  a  regard  for  proper  authority,  there 
can  not  be  a  State.  The  foundations  of  government  are 
wanting  where  these  are  absent.  How  then  would  a  man 
like  Nicholas,  educated  in  the  forms  and  theories  of  his 
national  church,  cherishing  as  an  individual  an  undoubting 
faith,  and  observant  of  the  forms  of  worship,  and  referring 
all  earthly  authority,  even  his  own,  to  God,  regarding  it  as 
resting  upon  the  Divine  sanction,  how  would  he  look  upon 
the  democratic  theories  of  modern  Europe  ?  He,  in  com- 
mon with  the  rest  of  the  world,  would  regard  the  whole 
movement  as  the  direct  fruit  of  the  French  revolution,  and 
that  would  stand  inseparably  connected  in  his  mind  with 
the  invasion  of  his  country  and  the  burning  of  Moscow. 
He,  and  every  other  Eussian,  would  from  these  associations 
be  led  to  look  upon  everything  savoring  of  French  opin- 
ions with  extreme  suspicion,  or  even  with  disgust. 

It  is  not  necessary,  therefore,  to  regard  the  feelings  and 
policy  of  Eussia  concerning  the  republican  spirit  of  Europe, 
as  arising  merely  from  a  love  of  tyranny  or  a  hatred  of  con- 
stitutional forms  of  government.  The  Czar  may  well  be 
excused  if  he  should  cherish  strong  feelings  of  distrust,  and 
even  dislike,  of  that  spirit  which,  receiving  its  birth  in 
France,  rushed  forth  for  the  overthrow  of  all  the  consti- 
tuted forms  of  society,  which  regarded  nothing  as  sound, 
and  from  which  nothing  was  safe,  which  swept  over  his 
own  native  land  like  a  storm,  and  wrapped  in  flames  some 
of  the  chief  cities  of  his  empire. 

Again,  the  emperor  of  Eussia  from  the  very  necessities 
of  his  education  and  belief,  as  well  as  the  facts  in  the  case, 
would  look  upon  the  democratic  spirit  of  Europe  as  the 
spirit  of  atheism.    It  would  be  considered  by  him  as  an 


310  RUSSIA  AIMS   AT   A   CIVILIZATION 

impious  attempt  to  establish  a  government  independent  of  the 
authority  of  God.  To  him  it  was  a  proposition  to  subvert 
the  whole  structure  of  society,  to  banish  from  the  world 
morality  and  religion,  to  create  a  State,  and  institute  a 
societ}^,  which  should  lie  without  the  jurisdiction  of  God. 
Looking  at  the  theory  of  the  French  philosophers  of  the 
revolution,  at  the  results  actually  reached  in  reducing  that 
theory  to  practice,  how  could  a  Russian  prince  regard  it  but 
as  the  spirit  of  atheism  arrayed  against  every  form  of  belief 
and  worship,  the  spirit  of  lawlessness  bent  upon  the  level- 
ing of  all  distinctions  and  the  overthrow  of  every  descrip- 
tion of  authority,  l^or  was  the  Russian  emperor  singular 
in  such  opinions.  The  most  candid  and  judicious  every- 
where, while  thankful  for  such  good  as  was  accomplished 
by  the  wild  outbreak  among  the  nations,  headed  by  France, 
have  regarded  atheism  as  the  central  idea  and  moving 
power  of  that  bloody  era.  It  was  not  so  much  an  attempt 
to  obtain  a  rational  freedom  as  the  annihilation  of  every 
form  of  authority,  and  the  removal  of  all  restraint  from 
the  individual  man.  It  was  an  effort  to  live  without  God 
in  the  world,  upon  the  assumption  that  the  authority  of  a 
government  rests  upon  human  compacts,  and  not  upon 
God  himself,  thus  annihilating  the  moral  power  of  a  State, 
and  substituting  instead  the  mere  will  of  a  present  majo- 
rity, with  no  recognition  of  the  eternal  right  and  wrong, 
nor  of  God  as  the  ultimate  Judge  and  Supreme  Legislator. 
I^Tor  can  it  be  denied  that  this  is  the  character  and  scope 
of  the  radical  democratic  movement  of  Europe  even  now. 
Doubtless  there  are  many  good  and  true  men  who  sympa- 
thize with  the  disposition  to  overthrow  both  the  civil  and 
ecclesiastical  despotism  of  the  Continent,  and  who  desire 
for  the  people  a  freedom  based  upon  a  Protestant  faith,  but 
this  is  not  characteristic  of  the  modern  revolutionary  spirit 
as  a  whole.  In  its  essential  principles  it  is  the  antagonism 
of  religion  as  well  as  of  monarchical  forms  of  government. 
It  abjures  a  Protestant  faith  as  decidedly  as  the  belief  in 
the  supremacy  of  the  Pope.  It  rejects  the  cross  as  scorn- 
fully as  the  worship  of  saints.     It  places  the  Bible  among 


f 


DISTINCT   FROM  THAT   OF  WESTERN  EUROPE.  311 

the  inventions  of  a  priesthood,  and  the  legends  of  monks. 
It  substitutes  a  holiday  for  the  Sabbath,  and  the  theater, 
the  saloon,  and  the  club-house,  for  the  worship  of  the  sanc- 
tuary. Such  is  this  movement  in  Europe  in  its  most  radi- 
cal forms,  such  was  its  spirit  as  manifested  in  the  French 
revolution,  and  such  do  we  behold  it  in  thousands  who 
have  made  our  own  country  their  home. 

European  democracy  must  not  be  mistaken  for,  nor  con- 
founded with  American  republicanism.  They  have  more 
points  of  antagonism  than  resemblance.  The  type  of  the 
one  must  be  sought  in  the  atheistic  movement  which  was 
originated  by  the  French  philosophers  of  the  Revolution, 
while  the  true  model  of  the  other  is  to  be  found  in  Ameri- 
can society  as  it  existed  in  the  colonies  and  in  the  era  of 
our  Revolution.  It  separates  man  from  his  God,  and  recog- 
nizes no  higher  rule  for  human  action  than  the  present 
will  of  the  present  majority.  This  is  the  form  of  civiliza- 
tion which  Red  Republicanism  would  establish  in  Europe, 
and  this  also  is  the  movement  to  which  Russia  has  stood 
inflexibly  opposed.  That  she  has  met  it  with  the  watchful 
spirit  of  despotic  power  is  doubtless  true.  That  she  has 
been  jealous  of  every  movement  in  favor  of  popular  liberty 
in  Europe  is  also  true — but  it  is  also  a  fact,  that  the  move- 
ments of  the  people  have  partaken  of  the  infidel  democratic 
spirit,  with  the  single  exception  of  Hungary,  and  how  far 
that  should  form  an  exception  we  are  not  now  prepared  to 
judge.  Had  that  revolution,  however,  became  a  general 
one,  embracing  Italy,  Germany,  and  France,  its  character 
would  have  been  that  which  has  just  been  described,  for 
such  is  the  type  of  European  democracy  as  a  whole. 

The  interference  of  Russia  in  Hungary,  unjustifiable  as 
it  was  by  any  moral  rule,  was  not  a  crusade  against  liberty, 
but  a  stroke  of  policy  to  secure  Austria  against  that  hour 
of  need  which  now  has  come.  Its  sagacity  as  a  measure 
of  State  policy,  is  sufficiently  shown  by  the  late  negotia- 
tions, and  the  present  position  of  Austria.  Let  it  then  be 
considered  exactly  what  is  meant  by  most  European  writers 
when  they  charge  the  Russian  government  with  being  the 


312  RUSSIA  AIMS  AT   A   CIVILIZATION 

foe  of  liberty.  It  means  that  the  whole  spirit  of  the  coun- 
try is  as  strongly  opposed  as  the  Emperor  himself  to  the 
idea  of  an  infidel  democracy,  and  that  the  Czar  has  shut  his 
country  up,  as  far  as  possible,  against  such  influences,  and 
discouraged  and  repressed  it  elsewhere,  according  to  his 
power.  It  w^ould  be  difficult  to  show  how  Europe  would 
be  improved  by  another  French  revolution — not  local,  but 
general  in  its  character — ending,  as  it  inevitably  would,  in 
the  re-establishment  of  military  despotisms.  It  certainly 
remains  to  be  shown  that  even  Russia  would  be  improved, 
and  the  condition  of  the  people  ameliorated,  by  any  form 
of  freedom  which  rejects  as  its  basis  a  Protestant  faith. 
Russia  has  not  directed  her  intrigues  or  her  armies  against 
American  liberties,  nor  shown  herself  in  any  w^ay  unfriendly 
to  our  government  or  our  progress. 

The  United  States  have  been  twice  compelled  to  meet 
England  in  arms  in  order  to  preserve  their  liberties,  and 
French  and  English  intrigues  have  been  full  often  arrayed 
against  our  interests  even  on  this  continent;  and  both 
these  Powers  have  shown  a  constant  desire  to  become  the 
self-constituted  "regulators"  of  American  affairs,  while 
Austria  and  the  other  Papal  states  have  sought  to  overthrow 
the  Republic  by  the  influence  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church ; 
in  short,  there  is  no  Power  of  Europe  that  has  evinced  so 
constant  and  consistent  a  friendship  for  this  country  as 
Russia.  This  so-called  foe  of  liberty  and  progress  has 
shown  a  steadfast  regard  for  that  people  among  whom  lib- 
erty and  progress  are  the  two  national  ideas — the  chief 
forces  by  which  society  is  controlled.  Americans,  then, 
should  certainly  pause  before  they  echo  the  clamor  against 
Russia  which  has  been  raised  by  the  Papal  Powers  and 
England,  for  the  purpose  of  vailing  their  own  designs,  and 
to  justify  the  Crimean  war.  It  does  not  necessarily  convict 
Russia  of  being  the  enemy  of  mankind,  to  prove  that  she 
excludes  her  most  bitter  foe  from  any  influence  in  her 
affairs,  or  that  she  guards  her  interests  and  people  from  the 
intrigues  of  the  Jesuits,  or  even  that  she  does  not  favor  a 
second  edition  of  the  scenes  of  the  French   Revolution. 


DISTINCT    FROM   THAT   OP   WESTERN  EUROPE.  318 

She  may  do  all  this,  and  yet  the  government  may  have 
some  scheme  of  its  own /or  the  elevation  of  humanity — 
some  policy  fitted  for  the  advancement  of  the  Russian 
people,  different  both  from  Red  Republicanism,  and  from 
the  civilization  which  is  proposed  for  the  world  by  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  Church.  The  exact  character  of  the  Russian 
government  can  not  be  understood  from  either  French  or 
English  descriptions.  Their  writers  observe  and  narrate 
with  previously  formed  opinions  to  which  Russia  is  made 
to  conform,  and  their  testimony  is  strongly  colored  by  in- 
terest and  prejudice.  Such  men  visit  Russia  in  order  to  see 
and  describe  the  barbarous  foe  of  liberty  and  civilization. 
They  mark  and  paint  in  vivid  colors  whatever  is  objection- 
able in  Russian  society,  or  the  general  condition  of  the 
country,  but  feel  no  sympathy  with  a  people  struggling 
with  heroic  spirit  against  the  difficulties  that  beset  them, 
and  endeavoring  to  work  out  a  national  destiny. 

Another  form  of  civilization  which  is  striving  to  estab- 
lish itself  in  Russia,  is  that  which  is  the  proper  outgrowth 
of  a  Protestant  faith.  Its  influence  upon  the  destinies  of 
the  eastern  world  is  probably  less,  so  far  as  national  coun- 
cils are  concerned,  than  at  any  time  since  the  Reformation. 
The  Papal  influence  is  the  ascendant  power  in  the  affairs 
of  western  Europe,  and  England  declares  that  she  prefers 
the  reaction  in  favor  of  the  Papacy,  with  the  French  nation 
to  lead  it,  to  the  further  advance  of  Russia.  She  is  willing 
to  see  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  again  lording  it  over 
the  nations,  if  only  Russia  can  be  humbled.  The  influence 
which  Protestantism  now  exerts  in  Europe  is  by  the  indi- 
rect and  silent  power  of  truth,  and  not  by  any  great  Pro- 
testant nation  standing  up  in  noble  defense  of  the  principles 
of  the  Reformation,  as  England  has  done  in  former  times. 
America  is  at  this  moment  the  great  Protestant  Power  of 
the  world — as  such  she  is  watched,  hated  and  plotted  against 
by  the  Papacy,  and  as  such,  God  is  preparing  her  to  execute 
her  mission.  But  Russia  is  charged  with  hostility  to  Pro- 
testantism. The  English  journals  declare  that  the  Russian 
Church  is  as  strongly  opposed  to  a  Protestant  faith  as 


314  RUSSIA  AIMS   AT   A   CIVILIZATION 

Romanism  itself.  The  assertion  is  an  unfounded  one.  The 
Russian  Church  is  not  intolerant  in  its  nature,  and  has  not 
one  essential  element  of  the  Papacy.  In  the  character  of 
the  church  itself,  there  are  no  more  reasons  for  hatred  of 
Protestantism  than  are  found  in  the  Church  of  England 
against  dissenters.  The  Russian  Church  is  simply  a  na- 
tional establishment,  with  the  Greek  form  of  worship. 

The  Romish  Church  is  by  theory,  in  spirit  and  practice, 
the  changeless  foe  all  that  dissent  from  her  dogmas  and  that 
refuse  her  communion.  The  tolerant  spirit  of  the  Russian 
Church,  its  tendency  to  affiliate  with  Protestants,  was  clearly 
shown  in  the  reign  of  Alexander,  when  the  government 
united  its  efforts  with  those  of  Protestant  churches  for  the 
circulation  of  the  Bible,  and  for  the  evangelizing  the  world. 
But  now  this  policy,  it  has  been  said,  has  been  abandoned, 
and  Russia  no  longer  co-operates  even  in  the  circulation 
of  the  Bible.  This  is  true,  but  then  the  circumstances  of 
this  case  are  worthy  of  consideration.  In  the  reign  of  Alex- 
ander, England  was  the  ally  of  Russia  against  France. 
Alexander  was  sincerely  desirous  of  elevating  and  refining 
his  people ;  he  wished  to  enter  in  earnest  upon  the  career 
of  national  civilization,  and  he  was  disposed  to  regard  with 
favor  the  English  example  of  Protestant  constitutional 
liberty,  and  as  a  basis  of  the  work  which  he  hoped  to  per- 
form, he  engaged  in  the  circulation  of  the  Bible,  and  en- 
couraged the  British  Bible  Society  within  his  dominions. 

But  ISTicholas  was  placed  in  entirely  different  circum- 
stances. He  found  himself  compelled  to  prepare  for  the 
approaching  hostility  of  western  Europe,  including  even 
Protestant  England,  notwithstanding  her  professions.  He 
saw  the  Papacy  and  Protestantism,  in  the  person  of  its 
chief  champion,  arraying  themselves  against  his  domini- 
ons, and  with  a  far  more  comprehensive  and  clear-seeing 
mind  than  Alexander,  he  perceived  that  the  future  great- 
ness and  even  safety  of  his  country  depended  not  upon 
giving  to  Russia  the  impress  of  western  Europe,  but  upon 
the  cultivation  of  a  true  Russian  nationality.  When,  there- 
fore, Protestantism,  as  represented  by  England,  was  gradu- 


DISTINCT   FROM   THAT   OF  WESTERN  EUROPE.  315 

ally  changing  from  an  ally  to  the  enemy  of  his  throne,  it 
was  perfectly  natural  that  he  should  think  it  needful  to 
repress  the  growth  of  Protestant  influences  within  his 
dominions.  It  is  altogether  unjust,  in  such  circumstances, 
to  accuse  the  Russian  government  of  hostility  to  a  Protest- 
ant faith.  England  has  not  always  been  so  pure  and  dis- 
interested in  her  policy  as  to  scorn  the  idea  of  using  even 
a  religious  influence  for  state  purposes,  and  what  American 
statesmen  would  desire  that  even  the  English  church  should 
obtain  a  wide  influence  in  this  country,  while  the  govern- 
ment of  England  was  not  only  showing  unfriendly  feelings 
but  even  making  preparations  for  war,  and  allying  herself 
with  a  Papal  Power  against  us. 

That  Mcholas,  under  such  circumstances  as  these,  should 
discourage  the  spread  of  Protestantism  in  Russia,  is  surely 
not  a  very  decided  proof  that  he  hated  its  principles;  but 
it  shows  most  conclusively  that  he  was  aware  of  the  dangers 
that  were  gathering  round  him,  and  that  he  had  the  saga- 
city to  perceive  the  most  effectual  method  of  defense,  by 
strengthening  the  national  sentiment  and  the  attachment 
of  the  people  to  their  national  church.  Discerning  the  real 
purposes  of  England  through  the  veil  of  her  diplomacy,  it 
would  have  been  suicidal  in  him  to  have  adopted  a  different 
course.  English  Protestantism,  in  the  hands  of  the  govern- 
ment, is  not  a  perfectly  harmless  thing,  and  what  perplexi- 
ties would  now  surround  the  Russian  Court  if  a  strong 
English  religious  influence  had  been  permitted  to  establish 
itself  in  the  country.  In  distinction  from  the  three  forms 
of  society  just  mentioned — the  Papal,  the  infidel  democratic, 
and  the  Protestant  as  represented  by  England — Russia  has 
been  aiming  at  a  civilization  which  shall  be  the  joint  result 
of  the  national  religion,  and  the  cultivation  of  an  inde- 
pendent national  life,  a  civilization  not  European,  but,  Rus- 
sian— a  political,  social  and  religious  structure,  fitted  to  the 
genius  of  Sclavonians.  These  considerations,  though  they 
may  not  justify  the  policy  of  Russia  in  all  respects,  serve 
to  explain  her  course,  and  to  relieve  her  from  the  charge  of 
mere  wanton  intolerance  and  bigotry,   which  has   been 


316  RUSSIA  AIMS   AT  A   CIVILIZATION 

argued  against  her.  Candor  should  induce  us  to  give  her 
the  full  benefit  of  such  explanations,  and  not  to  present  a 
mere  carricature  of  her  faults. 

The  rapid  progress  which  has  been  made  by  Russia  within 
the  last  hundred  years  is  conclusive  proof  that  her  system 
has  in  it  the  germ  of  a  true  life.  Seventy  millions  of  human 
beings  can  not  be  permanently  ruled  by  a  mere  show  and 
cheat,  much  less  can  they  thus  be  taught  to  make  swift 
advances  in  what  elevates  and  refines  the  race.  Nor  can 
they  long  be  crushed  by  a  mere  heartless  despotism  which 
has  in  it  no  element  of  good,  which  affords  no  protection 
to  the  people,  and  bestows  no  blessing,  and  where  society 
exists  for  the  benefit  of  a  single  man  and  his  court.  Such 
a  system  has  no  perpetual  lease  of  life,  even  among  a  bar- 
barous people.  But  Russia  presents  the  spectacle  of  an 
enduring  and  an  improving  life.  Individuals  have  been 
often  hurled  from  the  throne,  but  the  system  itself  has  re- 
mained unshaken,  still  constantly  accepted  by  the  people, 
and  tending  also  continually  towards  the  adoption  of  more 
liberal  forms.  These  facts  give  evidence  of  the  existence  of  a 
true  life,  of  a  system  which  has  been  called  into  being  by  the 
actual  wants  of  a  people,  and  which  continue,  because  with  all 
its  faults  those  wants  are  at  least  in  some  degree  supplied. 
The  system  is  endurable,  and  therefore  it  remains.  Upon 
investigation  a  very  important  fact  is  revealed.  The  germ 
from  which  the  Sclavonic  civilization  is  unfolding  consists 
of  two  principles,  which  are  identical  with  the  central  ideas 
of  Protestantism,  viz :  a  strong  religious  sentiment,  based 
on  a  creed  which  in  its  essential  features  is  orthodox,  and 
the  idea  that  the  State,  however  represented,  derives  its 
authority  only  from  the  higher  sanction  of  God,  and  there- 
fore that  to  a  properly  constituted  human  authority  obedi- 
ence is  rightly  due.  This  theory  derives  the  right  of  gov- 
ernment from  God  himself,  and  not  from  human  compact 
or  the  mere  will  of  a  present  majority.  While,  therefore, 
the  government  may  properly  demand  the  obedience  of  the 
subject,  when  in  the  proper  exercise  of  its  authority,  because 
wielding  a  power  derived  from  God,  it  is  under  the  most 


DISTINCT  FROM   THAT   OF   WESTERN  EUROPE.  317 

Bolemn  obligation  to  conform  its  acts  to  the  principles  of 
the  Supreme  Law  of  God  as  revealed  in  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, nor  can  the  subject  be  rightfully  called  upon  to  obey 
that  order  of  the  human  government  which  contravenes 
the  statute  that  has  been  enacted  by  the  Supreme  Legislator 
himself. 

The  difference  between  this  and  the  Papal  theory  is  essen- 
tial and  apparent.  The  Pope  also  rests  his  authority  upon 
that  of  God,  claiming  a  divine  sanction  for  his  acts,  but 
then  he  assumes  to  be  himself  the  sole  and  infallible  judge 
of  the  character  of  these  actions,  and  thus  leaving  no  liberty, 
or  right  of  judgment  or  conscience,  to  the  governed,  stands 
in  the  place  of  God  himself,  allowing  no  question,  and  no 
right  of  appeal.  The  Protestant  principle  secures  to  the 
citizen  the  rights  of  conscience  and  of  private  judgment  of 
the  character  of  acts  of  the  ruler.  The  one  secures  a 
rational  liberty,  and  the  other  is  a  crushing  despotism. 

The  Russian  or  Sclavonic  civilization,  then,  in  its  infancy 
now,  and  though  it  dimly  discovers  truth  as  yet,  seeing 
"men  as  trees  walking"  in  its  imperfect  vision,  does,  never- ^ 
theless,  embody  a  true  life,  resting  upon  truthful  principles, 
distinct  from  the  essential  and  changeless  despotism  of  the 
Papacy  on  the  one  hand,  and  from  an  infidel  movement  on 
the  other,  and  beyond  comparison  better  than  either.  True, 
the  religious  sentiment  is  now  perverted  and  clouded  wnth 
much  of  folly  and  superstition,  yet  the  Russian  mind  is  in 
the  attitude  of  faith  ;  it  sincerely  believes  in  the  truths  and 
rites  of  the  national  religion,  and  may  therefore  be  regarded 
with  hope.  Authority,  too,  is  used  in  a  despotic  manner ; 
cruelties  and  abuses  there  are  many.  Still,  instead  of  gath- 
ering up  all  evidences  of  present  wrong,  the  true  question 
should  be  whether  Russia  is  capable  of  a  better  future,  and 
whether  she  is  earnestly  and  successfully  endeavoring  to 
rise  to  a  more  elevating  position  in  the  scale  of  civilization. 
While  the  mind  of  the  nation  is  bound  to  a  religious  faith 
which  presents  the  actual  plan  of  salvation,  and  while  gov- 
ernmental authority  is  respected  as  emanating  from  God, 
Russia  may  be  regarded  as  possessing  not  only  the  elements 


*■ 


318  RUSSIA   AIMS   AT   A   CIVILIZATION 

or  national  greatness,  but  as  holding  to  principles  from 
which  rational  liberty  yet  may  spring.  And  this,  perhaps, 
will  more  clearly  appear,  if  we  consider  the  peculiar  form 
which  all  society  in  Russia  has  assumed,  a  form  to  which 
there  is  nothing  in  the  rest  of  Europe,  or  at  least  outside 
of  the  Sclavonian  tribes,  that  bears  a  resemblance.  The 
patriarchal  idea  pervades  the  whole  social  and  political 
structure,  from  the  father  of  a  family  upward  through  all 
the  gradations  to  the  Czar,  the  father  of  the  nation,  and  to 
God  the  Heavenly  Father  of  all.  In  theory,  this  is  not 
only  beautiful  but  true,  and  could  it  be  properly  realized  in 
practice,  Russia,  even  though  an  empire,  might  become  a 
model  State.  In  practice  these  Russian  fathers  are,  doubt- 
less, often  stern,  exacting,  and  cruel ;  such  fathers  as  some 
of  the  Czars  have  been,  have  conferred  no  special  blessings 
on  their  millions  of  children ;  still  the  beautiful  theory 
itself  remains  a  witness  against  those  who  abuse  it,  to  be 
itself,  perhaps,  completely  vindicated  and  reduced  to  prac- 
tice at  some  future  day. 

Covered,  as  this  theory  may  now  be,  by  the  rubbish  of  a 
despotic  government,  or  by  the  superstitious  observances 
of  a  corrupt  Church,  it  is  still  a  great  truth,  and  as  such  it 
will  survive,  and  in  spite  of  all  obstacles  it  will,  in  the  end, 
clothe  itself  in  a  body  of  fitting  institutions.  Aside  from  Pro- 
testantism, there  is  no  theory  of  social  life  and  government 
in  Europe  so  likely  to  win  for  itself  a  noble  future  as  that 
which  prevails  in  Russia.  There  is  evidently  no  possible 
hope  for  Europe  through  the  Papacy.  It  is  utterly  incap- 
able of  conferring  any  benefit  upon  the  human  race.  It 
may  persecute  and  degrade,  and  destroy,  but  to  elevate  or 
to  save  is  no  longer  within  its  power.  The  atheistic  move- 
ment is  doomed  to  destruction  because  the  Almighty  God 
watches  and  reigns  in  heaven.  Protestant  and  Russian 
civilization  may  yet  affiliate,  and  the  goverment  of  the  IN'orth 
be  liberalized,  not  by  association  with  an  infidel  democracy, 
but  by  the  spirit  of  Protestant  freedom.  If  the  power  of 
England  could  now  be  thrown  in  favor  of  the  right,  how 
mighty  the  influence  she  might  exert  in  favor  of  consti- 


DISTINCT    FROM   THAT   OF  WESTERN  EUROPE.  319 


tutional  liberty.  But  every  shot  she  fired  in  the  Crimea  was 
in  favor  of  Papal  aggression,  and  tended  to  hinder  or  defeat 
a  noble  experiment  in  civilization,  whose  success  might  open 
a  new  era  for  the  world,  and  especially  for  the  wasted  East. 
It  would  be  wise  for  those  among  us  who  desire  that  the 
influence  of  Russia  may  be  destroyed,  to  inquire  what  will 
take  its  place  in  Europe ;  what  power  will  be  in  the  ascend- 
ant, if  Russia  falls.  The  choice  seems  to  be  between  the  Pa- 
pacy and  Atheism ;  a  thought  worthy  the  serious  attention 
of  Americans,  and  especially  of  American  Christians.  Pro- 
testant England,  even  if  she  remains  Protestant,  can  not 
now  rule  Europe.  She  holds,  and  must  continue  to  hold, 
with  her  present  policy,  only  a  secondary  position.  She 
has  shaken  hands  with  the  Papacy,  and  she  must  eat  the 
fruits  of  her  bargain.  A  Sclavonic  civilization.  Atheism 
and  the  Papacy,  are  the  real  contending  powers  in  Europe. 
With  which  should  America  sympathize  ? 

The  aggressive  intermeddling  policy  of  England,  by  which 
she  attempted  to  repress  the  growth  of  all  other  nations  in 
order  to  aggrandize  herself,  and  compel  them  to  buy  and 
sell  only  as  she  should  dictate,  a  policy  which  explains  alike 
the  Crimean  war  and  the  earnest  support  she  has  given  to 
our  own  rebellion,  has  been  lately  exposed  and  rebuked  by 
Mr.  Cobden  and  Mr.  Bright,  in  a  debate  upon  the  relations 
of  the  British  Government  to  China. 

England  is  endeavoring  to  conquer  China,  as  she  has 
attempted  to  cripple  Russia,  and  the  United  States,  in 
order  to  force  her  to  purchase  from  and  sell  to  her  alone. 

Mr.  Cobden  first  showed  by  statistics  that  the  interven- 
tion of  the  Government  had  nearly  destroyed  the  trade 
with  China,  and  then  continued  as  follows : 

"This  is  the  moral — that  it  is  not  by  blood  and  vio- 
lence that  you  are  to  extend  your  commerce.  That  is 
the  way  to  destroy  trade,  and  not  the  way  to  create  it. 
I  hope  that  after  all  this  expecrience  we  shall  none  of  us 
again  advocate  any  violent  measures  with  the  view  of 
extending  our  trade  either  in  China  or  elsewhere. 
The    noble    lord    told  us  truly  that  there  is    one-third 


320  RUSSIA   AIMS   AT   A   CIVILIZATION. 

of  the  human  race— that  is  350,000,000  or  400,000,000  of 
human  beings — in  China.  They  are  but  very  small  cus- 
tomers, but  look  at  it  in  another  way.  If  you  are  to  follow- 
that  policy  which  is  peculiarly  the  noble  lord's  (Palmer- 
stone's),  if  you  are  to  break  into  the  country,  hold  it,  and 
be  its  police ;  if  you  are  to  make  another  Turkey  in  China, 
and  if,  in  addition  to  meeting  Russia  and  France,  you  are 
to  meet  the  United  States  at  Pekin ;  if  you  are  to  trouble 
yourselves  and  future  generations  with  governing  and  con- 
trolling, and  intriguing  in  China,  recollect  that  you  have  a 
country  of  vast  extent  and  prodigious  population  to  govern, 
and  that  you  ought  well  to  consider  whether  it  is  worth 
your  while  to  incur  all  these  risks,  and  enter  upon  this 
policy,  with  the  proofs  that  you  have  that  you  are  not 
likely  to  do  more  trade  with  that  country  than  you  are  with 
Brazil  or  Egypt." 

The  insolent  spirit  of  England,  which  leads  her  to  meddle 
with  the  affairs  of  all  nations,  and  attempt  to  control  them 
all,  was  thus  rebuked  by  Mr.  Bright : 

*'  Here  we  are,  a  small  island  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
globe,  with  a  population  so  limited  that  we  are  told  we 
have  not  an  army  that  we  could  transport  to  Denmark 
[hear,  hear],  yet  still  we  are  somehow  to  take  within  our 
great  ambition  this  vast  empire  of  three  or  four  hundred 
millions  of  persons  ;  we  are  to  influence  the  dynasty  that 
shall  sit  on  its  throne;  and  in  point  of  fact,  we  are  to 
direct  the  whole  affairs  of  the  country,  just  as  we  should 
those  of  some  small  neighbor  close  to  our  shores.  I  do  not 
know  how  such  an  idea  ever  got  into  any  man's  head,  but 
having  once  entered  in,  and  having  taken  absolute  posses- 
sion of  the  noble  viscount,  I  suppose  at  his  time  of  life  he 
cannot  get  rid  of  it." 

The  time  is  not  far  distant,  when  England  will  receive 
the  just  retribution  for  the  insults  and  wrongs  which  she 
has  wantonly  heaped  on  the  nations.  She  has  reached  the 
limit  of  her  aggressions,  and  henceforth  Russia  and  the 
United  States  will  both  stand  across  her  path. 


I 


THE  NATIONAL  IDBA  OF  RUSSIA.  821 


CHAPTER    XXIX 


THE   NATIONAL  IDEA  OF  EUSSIA. 


The  life  of  a  nation  resembles  that  of  an  individual.  Its 
early  portion  is  spent  in  mere  growth  and  preparation, 
which  has,  perhaps,  no  definite  aims.  There  is  enlarge- 
ment of  parts,  a  husbanding  of  strength,  a  discipline  of 
faculties,  with  no  distinct  perception  of  the  purpose  which 
is  to  be  attained.  But  the  period  at  length  comes  when 
the  object  for  which  the  man  is  to  live  and  act  presents 
itself  clearly  to  the  mind,  and  the  individual  perceives  his 
task,  his  mission  in  life  is  revealed,  and  thenceforth 
his  effort  is  to  shape  his  actual  life  according  to  the 
idea  which  he  has  formed.  So  also  with  great  nations. 
There  is  a  preparatory  period  in  which  there  is  no  con- 
sciousness of  a  special  national  destiny.  Like  the  boy  at 
school,  a  nation  in  childhood  forms  no  settled  plan  for  the 
future ;  but,  in  the  progress  of  its  growth,  there  is  grad- 
ually shadowed  forth — no  one  can  explain  how — a  concep- 
tion of  what  the  national  purpose  should  be,  and  this  in 
time  shapes  itself  to  a  clearly-defined  idea,  and  becomes  the 
object  of  national  existence  and  effort.  This  may  be  called 
the  national  idea,  and  when  truly  so,  it  shapes  the  whole 
policy  of  a  government,  and  directs  upon  itself  the  whole 
energy  of  a  people.  As  with  an  individual,  so  with  a 
nation,  the  actual  achievement  will  bear  some  proportion 
to  the  grandeur  of  the  conception  and  the  loftiness  of 
the  aims,  for,  in  the  arrangement  of  the  universe,  there 
21 


322  THE   NATIONAL   IDEA   OF   RUSSIA. 


seems  to  be  some  correspondence  between  desire  and  ca 
pacity. 

Russia,  as  it  would  seem,  has  now  so  far  emerged  from 
ber  years  of  cbildhood  as  to  have  formed  a  distinct  and 
individual  national  idea,  upon  w^bicli  she  has  shaped  a  well- 
defined  national  policy,  and  to  this  all  her  efforts  tend. 
This,  then,  must  be  the  key  to  all  her  movements,  and 
until  we  obtain  a  clear  view  of  her  national  idea,  Eussia 
will  remain  an  enigma,  and  we  shall  hear  only  of  despotism 
and  barbarism.  This  policy  will,  perhaps,  be  best  under- 
stood by  presenting,  as  preliminary,  some  negative  state- 
ments. And  first  among  these,  it  may  be  truly  afiirmed  that 
the  conquest  of  Western  Europe  is  no  part  of  the  policy 
of  Russia.  The  oft-repeated  cry  that  the  Crimean  war  was 
undertaken  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  the  Czar  from 
overrunning  Europe,  and  that,  therefore,  it  was  a  contest 
of  civilization  against  barbarism,  has  no  foundation  in  fact. 
There  is  not  a  single  proof  that  Russia  has  ever  entertained 
the  idea  of  using  her  military  power  for  the  conquest  of 
England,  France,  Germany,  or  any  of  the  larger  nations 
of  Europe.  Her  designs  in  this  direction  have  been  con- 
fined to  a  control  of  the  Baltic  and  the  adjacent  sea.  The 
Russian  Court  has  never  been  seized  with  such  a  madness 
for  conquest.  The  Russian  statesman  know^s  full  well  that 
if  all  these  "Western  crowns  could  be  laid  at  the  feet  of  the 
Emperor,  the  gift,  if  accepted,  would  be  fatal  to  his  country. 
The  incorporation  of  such  masses  of  heterogeneous  mate- 
rial into  her  state,  is  no  part  of  the  Russian  scheme.  On 
the  contrary,  such  an  idea  is  the  exact  opposite  of  the  one 
which  really  rules  her.  She  is  much  more  likely  to  draw 
around  her  a  cordon  of  armies  to  keep  Europe  out  and  away, 
than  to  use  them  to  conquer  and  incorporate  the  Western 
nations.  In  fact,  this  is  precisely  the  signification  of  her 
military  system,  so  far  as  Europe  is  concerned.  Her  forti- 
fications are  intended  to  keep  Europe  away,  w^hile  withi 
her  bristling  lines  of  artillery  she  pursues  her  national  worl 
Russia  would  never  attack  Western  Europe  unless  in  self-j 
defense,  to  ward  off  a  clearly-meditated  blow.    Whatevei 


I  THE  NATIONAL  IDEA   OF   RUSSIA.  $28 

has  been  written  in  regard  to  the  peril  of  England  or  France 
from  the  arms  of  Russia,  has  been  either  in  ignorance  of 
her  real  and  obvious  policy,  or  with  the  direct  design  to 
cover  the  true  character  and  objects  of  the  war.  That 
hereafter  she  may  seek  to  cripple  these  powers,  whenever 
she  has  the  ability,  may  perhaps  be  expected. 

France  and  England  have  made  an  issue  not  to  be  mis- 
understood or  evaded.  Their  utmost  strength  was  employed 
to  humble  Russia,  and  will  be  while  a  hope  of  success 
remains.  ]N"ecessity  will  compel  her  to  a  similar  course 
toward  them.  She  has  been  taught,  in  a  manner  which 
she  will  never  forget,  that  she  has  nothing  to  hope  except 
from  their  inability  to  injure.  The  idea  of  the  conquest 
and  incorporation  of  the  Western  nations.  Papal  and  Prot- 
estant, is  clearly  an  absurdity  too  palpable  to  be  entertained. 
It  is  not,  by  any  means,  a  universal  dominion  of  this  sort 
to  which  Russian  ambition  aspires.  The  associating  of  all 
animals  of  different  natures  in  one  harmonious  family,  and 
within  one  cage,  is  a  trivial  feat  compared  with  bringing 
into  peaceful  relationship,  under  one  government,  the  dif- 
ferent races  and  religions  of  Europe.  The  thing  is  impos- 
sible, even  were  there  adequate  physical  power,  until  the 
people  shall  be  all  righteous — in  short,  until  the  millennial 
age. 

But,  possible  or  impossible,  it  is  not  a  purpose  which  the 
rulers  of  Russia  have  ever  seriously  entertained.  Whoever 
will  glance  at  the  map  of  Europe  will  perceive  at  once, 
that,  so  far  from  its  being  demanded  by  any  interest  of 
Russia  that  she  should  absorb  the  German  states,  she  greatly 
needs  them  precisely  where  they  are.  They  constitute  her 
southern  frontier  defense,  and  help  to  render  her  impreg- 
nable, by  standing  between  her  and  her  more  formidable 
Western  foes.  !N'ot  conquest  and  incorporation  of  Ger- 
many, but  influence  over  its  policy,  is  what  Russia  both 
requires  and  seeks ;  this,  through  the  Sclavonic  race,  she 
will  be  very  likely  to  attain.  Of  this,  the  course  and  posi- 
tion of  Austria  and  Prussia  afford  sufficient  proof.  Instead 
of  meditating  aggressive  war  upon  France  and  England, 


824  THE   NATIONAL   IDEA   OF   RUSSIA. 

Russia  merely  desires  to  be  free  from  assault  herself,  that 
she  may  pursue  unhindered  her  own  separate  career; 
and  by  what  means  will  the  influence  of  Eussia  over 
Austria  be  prevented,  when  seventeen  millions  of  the 
population  of  Austria  are  Sclavonians?  This  fact  of  the 
alliance  of  races  is  the  true  key  to  the  policy  of  Austria. 

l!Teither  does  the  policy  of  Russia  contemplate  aggres- 
sive war  as  the  mere  propagandist  of  despotic  principles 
and  forms  of  government.  She  abhors  the  theories  of  the 
atheistical  movement;  they  shock  the  deep  religious  sen- 
timent which  pervades  the  Russian  mind.  The  late  Czar 
began  his  reign  with  the  necessity  of  crushing  a  conspiracy 
which  originated  in  French  influence,  and  he  detested  a 
spirit  which  he  regarded  not  as  the  spirit  of  freedom,  but 
of  lawlessness,  which  sought  to  trample  all  authority  under 
its  feet,  and  reproduce,  even  in  his  own  empire,  the  scenes 
of  the  reign  of  terror  in  France.  To  prove  that  Russia 
opposes  the  infidel  democratic  tendencies  of  a  portion  of 
Europe  is  not  necessarily  to  show  that  she  is  the  determ- 
ined foe  of  human  liberty.  There  are  millions  in  England, 
and  millions  in  republican  America,  who  regard  the  atheist- 
ical movement  on  the  continent  as  hostile  to  the  best  inter- 
ests of  humanity,  and  tending  to  enslave,  not  to  liberate, 
the  race.  There  are  millions  of  the  firm  and  devoted 
friends  of  freedom  and  progress  who  would  much  prefer  to 
have  every  throne  in  Europe  remain,  to  the  triumph  of  that 
lawless  spirit  which  scofis  at  and  rejects  all  authority,  both 
divine  and  human,  and  claims  to  be  a  lawgiver  and  a  god 
unto  itself.  E"o  man,  of  course,  will  attempt  to  prove  that 
Russia  was  not  a  despotic  government,  both  in  spirit  and  in 
practice,  but  it  does  not  prove  her  love  of  despotism  to  show 
that  she  opposes  such  a  democracy  as  has  once  convulsed 
Europe  only  to  the  destruction  of  popular  rights.  To  such 
a  miscalled  liberty  as  many  seek  to  establish  in  Europe, 
the  vast  majority  of  Americans  are  as  steadfastly  opposed 
as  the  Czar  himself.  Let,  at  least,  this  justice  be  done  to 
Russia.  Has  she  ever  sought  to  overthrow  the  constitu- 
tional liberties  of  England  ?    Has  she  ever  shown  herself 


THE  NATIONAL  IDEA  OF   RUSSIA.  325 

hostile  to  tlie  republican  liberty  wbicb  has  embodied  itself 
in  our  own  institutions  ?  She  should  have  all  the  benefit 
of  a  clear  discrimination  between  a  rational  liberty,  based 
upon  a  religious  faith  and  a  due  recognition  of  the  author- 
ity of  God,  and  a  mere  desire  to  sweep  all  authority  and 
restraint  away,  and  enthrone  the  individual  will,  or  human 
reason,  or  the  bare  decision  of  a  majority,  in  the  place  of 
God  himself.  Has  Russia  shown  a  settled  hostility  to  any 
movement  for  the  elevation  of  the  race,  except  the  infidel 
one  of  Europe  ? 

This  question  should  be  fairly  answered  before  she  is 
condemned,  and  Americans  should  be  careful  to  distinguish 
between  the  theory  of  our  Protestant  republicanism  and 
that  false  theory  of  freedom  which,  discarding  religion, 
would  begin  with  bloodshed,  and  end  in  the  most  hopeless 
forms  of  despotism. 

IS^either  the  conquest  of  Western  Europe,  nor  a  propa- 
gandism  of  despotic  principles,  nor  the  arresting  of  human 
progress,  nor  the  destruction  of  human  rights,  are  the  pur- 
poses which  shape  the  national  policy  of  the  Northern 
Empire.  "What,  then,  it  may  be  asked,  is  the  true  national 
idea  of  Russia  ?  Her  territorial  idea  is  of  a  kingdom  which 
ehall  include  the  Baltic  on  the  west,  which  on  the  south- 
east shall  cover  the  Black  Sea,  the  Caspian,  and  Constanti- 
nople, with  a  floating  eastern  frontier  advancing  toward 
India,  while  on  the  north-east  her  possessions  already  lie 
along  the  Pacific,  including  the  mouth  and  valley  of  the 
magnificent  Amoor.  This  is  the  Russian  conception  of 
territorial  limits,  and  it  is  one  'whose  grandeur  stands 
unequaled  by  any  idea  of  empire,  whether  of  ancient  or 
modern  times,  except  by  the  American  thought,  which 
embraces  the  twin  continents  of  the  West.  Rome  herself, 
in  the  hight  of  her  pride  and  power,  was  but  as  a  third- 
rate  power  compared  with  what  Russia  would  be,  could  she 
once  realize  her  vast  conception.  It  is  one  of  the  most 
splendid  ambitions  that  has  ever  stirred  the  human  heart. 
Let  those  who  so  lavishly  heap  the  epithets  barbarous,  and 
ignorant,  and  rude,  upon  Russia,  take  a  map,  and  sit  calmly 


326  THE  NATIONAL  IDEA   OF   RUSSIA. 

down  and  study  this  national  idea  of  territorial  greatness. 
In  extent  and  position,  in  variety  and  amount  of  resources, 
in  every  element  of  prosperity  and  power,  such  an  empire 
would  be  foremost  in  all  the  history  of  earth  thus  far ;  and 
instead  of  its  being  a  mere  empty  vision — a  day-dream,  to 
muse  over — ^Europe  awakes  now,  with  a  start,  to  find  this 
whole  scheme  so  nearly  accomplished  as  to  render  it  doubt- 
ful whether  the  combined  strength  of  the  Western  nations 
can  ofter  any  efi:ectual  resistance.  These  vast  regions  she 
proposes  to  populate  mainly  with  Russians,  or  at  least 
Sclavonians,  and  to  extend  over  it  all  the  influence  of  a 
single  race,  and,  if  possible,  a  single  religion.  Lastly,  by 
these  means  she  intends  to  restore  to  its  ancient  channels 
the  commerce  of  the  East.  These,  it  must  be  conceded  by 
all,  are  vast  conceptions,  and  they  form  together  what  may 
be  regarded  in  general  as  the  national  idea  of  the  great 
IsTorthern  Power — ^the  scheme  which  shapes  her  policy. 
That  she  has  been,  or  will  be,  scrupulous  in  the  choice  of 
means  for  the  accomplishment  of  her  purposes,  will  not  be 
pretended ;  but,  judged  by  the  moral  rules  which  have  gov- 
erned the  policy  of  other  nations,  she  will  not  be  found  a 
sinner  beyond  them  all ;  and  there  is  something  truly  ludi- 
crous in  the  present  position  of  England,  which  has  never 
scrupled  to  seize  and  appropriate  where  she  could,  in  all 
the  regions  of  earth,  priding  herself  now  upon  her  spotless 
and  irreproachable  integrity  for  refusing  an  ofler  of  the 
Czar,  for  the  partition  of  Turkey,  because  it  did  not  suit 
her  interests,  and  after  it  had  been  virtually  approved.' 
She  who  has  swallowed  half  of  India,  and  still  declares 
herself  insatiate,  is  shocked  and  cut  to  the  heart  that  Russia] 
should  enlarge  her  territory.  Treachery,  force,  injustice,] 
and  oppression  have  marked  the  progress  of  every  greal 
nation  of  earth,  Russia  included,  but  her  virtue  is  full] 
equal  to  that  of  those  who  are  accusing  her  so  loudly ;  and! 
of  all  nations,  England  is  least  fitted  to  teach  others  th( 
commandment,  "  Thou  shalt  not  steal." 

To  work  out  this  great  idea,  and  produce  the  correspond^ 
ing  reality,  is  undoubtedly  the  main  ambition  of  Russif 


THE  NATIONAL   IDEA   OP   RUSSIA.  327 

To  the  acquisition  of  this  territory,  to  -establish  this  unity 
of  race  on  the  firm  basis  of  a  common  religion,  to  direct 
toward  herself  the  riches  of  the  commerce  of  the  enriching 
East,  she  bends  her  energies  with  a  steadfastness  and 
strength  of  will  that  would  seem  to  be  the  earnest  of  suc- 
cess. It  is  not  a  policy  which  depends  upon  an  individual 
or  a  party.  It  belongs  to  the  nation,  and  Czars  may  be 
deposed,  or  assassinated,  or  die  in  the  midst  of  their 
schemes,  still  the  course  of  the  empire  is  toward  Constan- 
tinople and  the  East.  It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  the 
real  national  idea  of  Russia  is  to  become  a  great  commer- 
cial state — the  great  commercial  power  of  the  world ;  and 
her  military  array,  vast  as  it  is,  was  never  intended  for 
conquest,  but  for  self-protection,  for  an  hour  like  this,  when 
Papal  hatred  and  commercial  jealousy  are  seeking  to 
cripple  her  power,  to  arrest  her  progress,  and  to  prevent 
her  from  restoring  the  Eastern  Empire  and  the  Greek 
Christianity  on  the  Sclavonic  basis,  to  far  more  than  their 
original  power  and  splendor.  The  reader,  perhaps,  will 
now  be  prepared  to  study  with  increased  interest,  and  more 
in  detail,  the  means  which  Russia  has  chosen,  and  the  facil- 
ities which  she  possesses  for  executing  her  designs. 


328  RUSSIA,  LIKE  AMERICA,  AIMS  TO  GROW 


CHAPTER    XXX 


BUSSIA,    LIKE   AMERICA,   AIMS   TO    GROW    BY  THE    DEVELOPMENT    OF    HEB 

OWN  RESOURCES. 


One  of  the  leading  ideas  of  the  policy  of  this  govern- 
ment undoubtedly  is  to  render  itself  independent,  as  far 
as  possible,  of  all  other  nations,  and  hence  its  steady  ad- 
herence, under  great  difficulties,  to  a  system  of  self-culture 
and  the  endeavor  to  stretch  its  dominion  over  a  territory 
which  would  afford  within  her  own  limits  the  means  of 
independent  support.  Peter  the  Great  undertook  the  im- 
possible task  of  civilizing  his  country  by  forcing  it  into  the 
mold  of  Europe.  He  put  Russia  into  foreign  costume,  and 
declared  that  the  nation  was  civilized.  His  successors  per- 
ceived dimly  the  mistake,  and  did  what  in  them  lay,  though 
little,  to  apply  the  remedy ;  but  ^N'icholas  first  saw  clearly 
that  Russia  could  be  made  great  only  by  being  expanded 
from  a  national  living  center  of  her  own,  and  that  the 
individual  Russian  character  must  be  the  basis  of  the  em- 
pire. He  therefore  adopted  a  thoroughly  national  system, 
too  exclusive,  doubtless,  in  some  of  its  features,  but  intended 
to  accomplish  a  purpose  worthy  of  a  great  man  and  a  great 
nation — the  complete  development  of  the  resources  of  his 
empire.  Much  had  been  done,  indeed,  before  his  reign, 
but  he  alone  had  the  comprehensive  mind  which  enabled 
him  to  form  the  fragmentary  designs  of  his  predecessors 
into  one  compact  and  clearly-defined  system,  embracing  all 
the  great  interests  of  his  kingdom,  stimulating,  guiding, 
and  protecting  its  industry,  and  opening  up  its  hidden 


BY  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF   HER  OWN  RESOURCES.         329 

resources.  His  far-reaching  sagacity  foresaw  tlie  coming 
collision  with  the  West,  and  he  addressed  himself  to  the 
task  of  rendering  his  country  independent  of  others. 

The  sound  statesmanship  which  dictated  this  policy  is 
now  ahundantly  evident  to  the  world.  Eussia  was  not  only 
ahle  to  hear  the  shock  of  Western  Europe,  hut  such  was 
her  financial  condition,  that,  in  the  very  midst  of  the  con- 
flict, the  rates  of  exchange  threatened  to  remove  the  hullion 
from  the  Bank  of  England  to  St.  Petersburg,  and  against 
every  effort  made  to  prostrate  her  credit,  it  stood  firm  and 
unimpaired,  and  her  stocks  commanded  a  better  price  and 
market  than  any  of  our  first-rate  American  securities, 
though  we  were  at  peace,  and  with  no  external  causes  to 
impede  our  prosperity.  England,  at  the  commencement 
of  the  Crimean  War,  took  occasion  to  sneer  at  the  weak- 
ness of  Russia,  occasioned,  as  she  declared,  by  her  "  barbar- 
ous tariff,"  as  she  has  now  sneered  at  and  raged  over  our 
Morrill  tariff;  but  this  same  barbarous  Russian  system,  by 
which  home  production  and  manufactures  have  been  stimu- 
lated and  improved,  proved,  in  her  hour  of  peril,  the  salva- 

Ifc  tion  of  the  empire.  England  and  France  might  blockade 
every  port  of  Russia  for  fifty  years,  and,  instead  of  crippling 
her  power  or  diminishing  her  resources,  they  would  only 
exhaust  themselves,  while  she  grows  strong  within.  They 
might,  in  this  way,  for  a  time,  hinder  her  external  progress, 
but  she  would  thereby  daily  become  more  formidable  from 
the  concentration  of  her  strength,  from  the  increasing  power 
of  her  central  life,  and,  in  the  end,  she  would  burst  all  bar- 

||;  riers  away,  and  sweep  far  and  wide  with  resistless  flow. 
Such  is  already  the  variety  and  extent  of  her  resources  and 
manufactures,  that  her  progress  would  still  be  steady,  even 
though  it  were  possible  to  cut  off  altogether  her  European 
trade,  for  she  could  soon  produce  for  herself  whatever  she 
purchases  in  the  West,  and  she  has  an  extensive  Asiatic 
trade,  which  can  not  be  interrupted.  But  her  European 
trade  can  not  be  cut  off'  by  any  blockade  that  would  be 
tolerated  by  the  rest  of  the  world.  After  the  Baltic  fleets 
had  blockaded  the  Russian  ports  through  one  season,  it 


330  RUSSIA,   LIKE   AMERICA,   AIMS   TO    GROW 

was  discovered  tliat  the  exports  of  Russia  were  still  as 
large  as  before.  All  articles  had  found  their  way  to  the 
markets  of  the  world  by  having  first  been  conveyed  to 
neutral  ports.  Had  the  Czar  been  deluded  with  the  policy 
of  England,  had  he  allowed  Great  Britain  to  become  his 
merchant  and  manufacturer,  suifering  meanwhile  his  own 
resources  to  remain  untouched,  and  using  up  the  product 
of  his  Ural  gold  mines  yearly  to  settle  his  account  for  Eng- 
lish goods,  he  would  have  been  completely  at  the  mercy  of 
the  Western  powers,  compelled  either  to  submit  to  their 
every  demand,  or  to  see  himself  humbled,  crippled,  ex- 
hausted even  in  a  single  campaign.  England  seems  to  have 
so  far  convinced  herself,  by  her  own  false  reasoning,  con- 
cerning the  doctrine  of  free-trade,  as  to  be  incapable  of 
believing  that  Russia  could  make  progress  under  her  "  bar- 
barous tariff,"  and,  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  was  really 
ignorant  of  the  condition  and  strength  of  her  foe. 

As  in  our  own  revolutionary  war  England  refused  to 
believe  that  her  soldiers,  duly  provided  with  "  pig-tails," 
and  each  one  jjroperly  "  pipe-clayed,"  and  understanding, 
too,  all  the  mysteries  of  drill,  could,  by  any  possibility, 
be  beaten  by  men  in  "  tow  frocks,"  who  knew  nothing  of 
"  pig-tail,"  or  '^  pipe-clay,"  or  "  drill,"  so  with  England 
now  it  has  been  deemed  a  sufficient  answer  to  all  sugges- 
tions of  the  strength  of  Eussia  to  say  she  is  weak,  even 
bankrupt,  because  of  her  "barbarous  tariff."  But  when 
the  Muscovite  was  found  full  of  vigorous  life,  well-nigh 
or  quite  impregnable  in  his  positions,  England  could  no 
more  solve  the  enigma  than  she  could  understand  the 
battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  when  the  Americans  knew  no  more 
of  the  proprieties  of  war  than  to  slaughter  and  defeat 
regularly-drilled  soldiers  in  "  pipe-clay  and  pig-tails."  The 
Czar  was  too  barbarous  to  comprehend  how  his  state  would 
be  enriched  by  digging  and  coining  gold  wherewith  to 
purchase  abroad  what  he  had  every  facility  of  producing 
at  home ;  and  so  he  concluded  to  manufacture  for  himself 
what  he  needed,  inasmuch  as  his  people  had  both  time 
and  material,  and  then  he  would  lay  up  the  produce  of 


BY   THE   DEVELOPMENT   OF   HER  OWN   RESOURCES.  331 

his  gold  mines  against  a  day  of  need,  or  lie  would  at  least 
keep  it  in  circulation  at  home.  At  the  same  time  he  em- 
ployed a  liberal  portion  of  this  newly-created  wealth  and 
newly-developed  activity  and  skill  in.  strengthening  and 
multiplying  the  defenses  of  the  empire ;  and  in  this,  with 
liberal  hand,  he  has,  it  appears,"  exhausted  the  power  of 
modern  science;  and  thus,  when  the  Western  Powers  as- 
sailed him,  instead  of  finding  a  needy  bankrupt,  ruined 
by  his  "barbarous  tariff,''  it  was  discovered  that  he  had 
more  bullion  in  his  coffers  than  the  Bank  of  England,  and 
they  dashed  themselves  against  fortifications  that  defied 
their  utmost  effort,  and  which  can  only  be  captured,  if 
at  all,  by  a  most  shocking  sacrifice  of  treasure  and  of 
life. 

It  is  quite  clear  that  Eussia,  under  the  influence  of  her 
home  system,  had  reached  a  degree  of  power,  of  an  inde- 
pendent interior  strength,  of  which  the  Allies  had  no  ade- 
quate idea,  and  for  which  they  were  evidently  unprepared. 
Under  the  walls  of  Sebastopol  they  learned  the  art  of 
war  from  an  enemy  they  had  affected  to  despise ;  and  the 
present  aspect  of  Russia  before  the  world  conveys  the  most 
impressive  lesson  in  political  economy  that  has  been  taught 
in  modern  times.  She  now  presents  a  practical  argument 
in  favor  of  self-development  which  can  neither  be  evaded 
nor  answered.  She  stands  mighty  and  self-balanced,  and 
therefore  calm,  self-reliant,  and  hopeful,  reaping  the  fruits 
of  a  wise  attention  to  the  culture  of  her  own  national  life. 
She  presents  an  example  well  worthy  the  study  of  Ameri- 
can statesmen,  of  what  may  be  accomplished,  even  under 
great  disadvantages,  by  a  protection  of  home  interests. 

The  system  which  the  government  has  adopted  is  one 
which  embraces  in  its  design  the  leading  interests  of  a 
nation.  It  has  given  no  more  prominence  to  the  military 
department  than  was  demanded  by  a  prudent  regard  for 
the  condition  and  purposes  of  the  great  powers  of  Europe. 
Her  preparations  to  meet  the  assault  of  the  Western  Powers 
were  neither  too  rapid  nor  too  extensive.  The  formidable 
character  of  the  Crimean  conflict,  and  the  spirit  in  which 


332  RUSSIA,   LIKE  AMERICA,   AIMS   TO   GROW 

it  was  conducted,  showed  conclusively  tliat  Russia  has  not 
overrated  the  means  needed  for  her  defense.  It  must  not 
be  forgotten  that  the  policy  which  now  controls  the  empire 
is  of  recent  origin,  and  owes  its  present  form  and  efficiency 
to  the  statesmanship  of  Nicholas  and  his  son.  It  has, 
therefore,  had  too  little  time  as  yet  to  work  out  completed 
results.  There,  as  in  the  United  States,  society  is  still  in 
the  transition  state,  and  the  Russians,  like  ourselves,  are 
struggling  forward  in  the  career  of  improvement,  under  all 
the  disadvantages  which  are  found  in  a  country  where  re- 
sources, though  abundant,  are  yet  in  great  measure  unused, 
and  to  a  great  extent,  perhaps,  unknown.  Peter  the  Great 
undertook  to  force  upon  his  country  a  system  of  life  copied 
wholly  from  the  West,  for  which  his  people  were  unpre- 
pared, and  which  was  in  measure  unsuited  to  their  genius ; 
and  though  he  awoke  Russia  to  a  new  life,  yet  it  wore 
more  of  the  appearance  of  a  masquerade  than  of  a  real 
life.  Alexander,  on  the  other  hand,  proposes  to  himself  to 
create  a  civilization  for  his  empire  which  shall  be  a  proper 
outgrowth  of  Russian  mind,  and  be  based  upon  the  home 
resources  of  the  country.  England  is  disposed  to  discourage 
and  sneer  at  these  efforts,  for  obvious  reasons,  precisely  as 
she  derided  the  early  attempts  at  manufacturing  in  the 
United  States.  The  folly  and  ruinous  consequences  of 
cherishing  home  production  was  duly  pointed  out,  the  rude- 
ness of  our  machinery,  the  unskillfulness  of  our  workmen, 
the  impossibility  of  competing  with  English  establishments, 
the  inferior  character  of  our  fabrics,  were  all  most  clearly 
shown;  and  yet,  with  the  fostering  care  of  government 
only  capriciously  extended,  and  as  capriciously  withdrawn, 
and  in  spite  of  much  adverse  legislation,  American  manu- 
factures have  grown  up  to  their  present  importance.  The 
efforts  of  Russia  are  being  crowned  with  an  earlier  success, 
because  the  Imperial  Government  has  extended  to  this 
home  policy  its  full  support.  Still  the  nation  has  but  just 
entered  into  this  new  career,  and  what  it  has  already 
accomplished  may  be  regarded  only  as  the  earnest  of  a 
more  glorious  future.     The  adoption  of  this  policy  has 


BY  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  HER  OWN  RESOURCES.    333 

placed  the  national  life  of  Russia  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
rest  of  Europe.  Her  outworks  may  be,  perhaps,  destroyed, 
but  the  process  of  destruction  will  be  more  costly  to  France 
and  England  than  their  erection  was  to  E-ussia,  or  than 
their  reconstruction  will  be.  The  Allies  can  not  aflbrd  to 
demolish  many  such  fortresses  as  Sebastopol ;  while  Russia, 
if  she  adheres  to  her  present  policy,  will  each  year  be  able 
to  construct  such  defenses  with  greater  facility. 

This  system,  as  has  been  said,  embraces  all  the  great 
interests  of  a  state,  although  as  yet  it  is  not  equally  devel- 
oped, nor  working  in  perfection  anywhere.  But  great 
results  have  already  been  reached,  and  the  promise  for  the 
future  is  abundant,  and  enough  has  been  done  to  render 
this  future  secure.  The  leading  idea  is  to  secure  for  Rus- 
sia the  control  of  the  native  race,  to  fill  the  territory  of  the 
empire  mainly  with  the  native  population.  For  this  reason, 
foreign  influences  and  foreign  control  are  guarded  against 
with  a  watchful  care ;  and  the  exclusive  policy,  which  has 
brought  such  showers  of  reproaches  upon  Russia,  is  one 
whose  necessity  the  native  American  population  is  begin- 
ning to  feel  even  here,  and  when  we  consider  the  policy 
which  circumstances  are  forcing  upon  this  nation,  we  shall 
at  least  be  better  able  to  comprehend  the  motives  of 
Russia.  She  pursues  her  course,  it  may  be,  in  a  manner 
which  the  liberal  might  condemn,  and  which  she,  even 
now,  is  modifying ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  Americans  now 
perceive  that  in  their  extreme  liberality  to  foreigners,  they 
have  been  unjust  to  themselves,  have  put  in  jeopardy  the 
republic,  and  have  even  prejudiced  the  best  interests  of  the 
foreign  population  themselves.  Russian  statesmen  are  re- 
solved that  the  native  race  shall  control  their  country,  and 
believe  that  this  is  the  essential  idea  of  a  true  national  life. 

Then,  as  next  in  importance,  both  for  purposes  of  trade 
and  for  preserving  the  national  unity,  great  attention  has 
been  paid  to  a  system  of  internal  communications.  This 
has  been  conceived  and  executed  on  a  scale  proportionate 
to  the  extent  of  the  country.  The  most  distant  points  of 
the  empire  are  already  connected  with  each  other  by  lines 


334  RUSSIA,   LIKE   AMERICA,   AIMS   TO   GROW 

of  river  and  canal  navigation,  and  these  are  so  located 
in  the  interior  that  it  is  scarcely  possible  that  the  do- 
mestic trade  of  the  country  should  be  aifected  by  foreign 
war. 

These  communications  are  becoming  every  day  more  im- 
portant and  valuable  to  the  inhabitants,  on  account  of  the 
introduction  of  river  steamboats,  by  which,  as  with  us  in 
America,  the  transit  of  passengers  and  merchandise  is  yearly 
rendered  more  cheap,  more  rapid,  and  more  certain.  The 
navigable  rivers  are  connected  by  numerous  interlacing 
canals;  and,  by  means  of  both,  the  Caspian,  the  Euxine, 
the  "White  Sea,  and  the  Baltic,  have  all  communications 
with  each  other,  running  through  the  heart  of  the  empire, 
affording  almost  unequaled  facilities  for  the  transportation 
of  the  various  commodities  which  are  required  by  seventy 
millions  of  people. 

These  works,  begun  by  Peter  the  Great,  have  been  con- 
stantly extended  and  improved  since  his  reign  by  his  suc- 
cessors, as  an  important  feature  of  national  policy  ;  and,  in 
addition  to  these,  the  late  Gzar  projected  a  system  of  rail- 
roads on  a  scale  equally  extensive,  two  important  trunk 
lines  of  which  are  nearly  completed. 

The  government  schools,  already  mentioned,  are  a  most 
important  feature  in  this  scheme  of  national  policy.  They 
look  equally  to  the  protection  of  the  country  and  to  the 
rapid  and  scientific  development  of  its  agricultural,  min- 
eral, and  manufacturing  resources.  In  these  schools  thou- 
sands of  scholars  are  scientifically  trained  in  mining,  in 
agriculture,  and  in  the  mechanical  and  -manufacturing  arts, 
and  then  they  are  scattered  through  the  country  to  become 
the  practical  teachers  of  the  communities  in  which  they 
reside.  Results  of  the  most  important  national  character 
have  already  been  reached  in  the  mining  and  manufactur- 
ing operations,  which  are  far  more  extensive  and  complete 
than  most,  either  in  Europe  or  America,  suppose.  This 
fact,  perhaps,  can  not  be  more  clearly  shown  than  by  the 
following  quotation  from  an  article  lately  translated  from 
the  French  for  the  Merchants'  Magazine  : 


BY  THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF   HER   OWN  RESOURCES.  335 

"  At  the  same  time,  Kussia  attempts  to  naturalize  in  her 
provinces  all  the  industrial  arts  of  the  West,  and  has  made 
a  real  progress,  which  is  easy  to  be  proved,  and  of  which 
Europe  makes  too  little  account.  The  Czars,  in  their 
haughty  prid^,  do  not  wish  to  be  obliged  to  ask  any  thing 
from  the  rest  of  the  world,  and,  profiting  by  the  different 
climates  united  in  their  vast  empire,  endeavor  to  cultivate 
the  productions  of  every  clime.  They  have  no  colonies  for 
the  production  of  sugar,  but  the  provinces  of  Orel  and 
Sacolef  are  covered  with  immense  plantations  of  beets,  from 
which  sugar  is  manufactured.  Their  southern  provinces 
furnish  wheat  for  part  of  the  "West.  In  1850  the  exporta- 
tion was  enormous.  The  northern  provinces  produce  pro- 
digious quantities  of  flax  and  hemp. 

"  Cotton  is  cultivated  in  Georgia  and  the  country  taken 
from  Persia.  Since  1845  indigo  has  been  introduced  into 
the  Caucasian  provinces,  merino  sheep  by  hundreds  of 
thousands  are  all  around  Moscow,  toward  the  Baltic,  and 
on  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea.  They  prosper  everywhere, 
and  produce  abundantly.  Silk  is  produced  in  the  southern 
provinces,  and,  in  1833,  the  Emperor  Nicholas  caused  four 
millions  of  shoots  of  the  mulberry-tree  to  be  planted. 
The  gold  mines  of  Asiatic  Eussia  are  very  productive,  and 
furnish  annually  one  hundred  millions  of  francs  to  the 
treasury. 

"  Finally,  the  Czars  wished  to  have  their  wine  independ- 
ently of  France,  and  the  Crimea  is  covered  with  vineyards. 
We  look  with  astonishment,  and  almost  with  fear,  at  the 
rapid  and  powerful  development  of  Eussian  activity ;  for 
the  genius  which  has  given  and  still  gives  impulse  to  this 
great  movement  of  Oriental  slavism  is  not  the  friend  of 
liberal  institutions,  or  the  tendency  of  the  people  toward 
political  or  religious  emancipation.  Any  nation  whatever 
that  rises  and  marches  onward  in  grandeur  and  prosperity 
has  a  claim  to  our  respect  and  to  our  sympathies ;  but  in 
Eussia  it  is  not  the  people  that  rise,  it  is  the  Autocrat." 

Here  is  presented,  and  apparently  m  an  authentic  form, 


336  RUSSIA,   LIKE   AMERICA,   AIMS   TO   GROW 

Bome  most  valuable  information  concerning  the  condition 
and  progress  of  Russia,  but  one  can  not  avoid  being  amazed 
both  at  the  narrow  spirit  in  which  the  article  is  written 
and  the  conclusion  which  the  writer  has  reached.  It  proves 
how  impossible  it  is  for  France  to  form  a  candid  judgment 
of  Russia. 

It  is  certainly  difficult  to  perceive  why  a  desire  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  great  natural  advantages  of  their  terri- 
tory, even  to  the  utmost,  should  be  stigmatized  in  the 
Czars  as  a  haughty  pride.  How  much  more  worthy  of 
reproach  or  contempt  would  they  be  if  they  had  either 
overlooked  these  advantages,  or,  knowing  them,  had  suf- 
fered them  to  remain  unused !  It  has  generally  been  con- 
sidered as  evidence  of  wise  statesmanship  where  a  govern- 
ment understands  and  earnestly  avails  itself  of  its  own 
resources,  and,  by  a  course  of  honest  industry,  increases  the 
amount  and  variety  of  its  productions,  until,  if  possible,  it 
can  obtain  an  independent  support  from  its  own  industrial 
pursuits. 

But  it  seems  that  Russia  can  not  appropriate  her  lands 
to  such  productions  as  soil  and  climate  indicate,  without 
being  charged  with  a  haughty  desire  to  become  independ- 
ent of  surrounding  nations.  This  desire,  coupled  with  pro- 
tection to  her  own  industry,  is  denounced  as  an  evidence 
of  barbarism  by  England  and  France.  If  Russia  would 
consent  to  confine  herself  to  the  raising  of  such  raw  mate- 
rial as  England  and  France  require,  sell  it  to  them  at  prices 
established  by  themselves,  and  purchase  from  them  all  her 
supplies  of  manufactured  goods,  at  their  prices  also,  and 
settle  by  specie  the  yearly  balances,  thus  making  herself 
a  huge  and  helpless  dependency  of  the  West,  then  she 
would  be  admitted  to  the  rank  of  highly-civilized  nations, 
and  the  loud  cry  against  Russian  despotism  would  be  heard 
no  more,  at  least  from  England.  Russia,  converted  to  the 
wisdom  of  free-trade,  would  be  lauded  and  caressed. 

The  Czars  of  the  ITorth  see  in  the  free-trade  scheme 
only  an  effectual  plan  for  sending  the  gold  and  silver  of 
the  Ural  district  to  the  Bank  of  England,  and  they  are 


BY  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  HER  OWN  RESOURCES.    337 

barbarous  enougb  to  desire  to  bold  it  in  deposit  at  borne, 
and  employ  it  for  tbe  general  advancement  and  defense  of 
tbeir  country.  England  and  France  are  sore  amazed  at 
tbis  uncivilized  want  of  discernment  on  tbe  part  of  Russia, 
and  tberefore  endeavored  to  enligbten  ber  witb  cannon- 
sbot  and  twenty-two-incb  sbells,  under  General  Pellissier, 
tbe  Arabic  Professor  of  Cbristian  civilization,  wbo,  in  a 
most  enligbtened  and  bighly- civilized  manner,  suffocated, 
in  tbeir  rock  fortress,  the  brave  Arabs  wbom  be  could  not 
conquer  in  an  honorable  battle. 

Russia  barbarously  enacts  a  tariff  and  cberisbes  ber  own^ 
native  industry,  and  avails  berself  of  all  tbe  aids  of  modern 
art,  as  found  among  ber  neighbors.  Haughty  Russia !  ex- 
claims France ;  too  proud  to  be  dependent.  Barbarous^ 
Russia  !  replies  England ;  she  enacts  a  protective  tariff,  and 
manufactures  for  berself,  despising  the  wisdom  of  free-trade 
and  dependence.  Why  should  not  tbe  bill-sides  of  the- 
Crimea  be  covered  witb  vineyards  as  well  as  those  of 
France  ?  "Why  should  not  Russia  exclaim,  0  haughty 
France  !  that  seeks  to  drink  wine  independently  of  my 
Crimean  vineyards  ? 

Why  should  not  merino  sheep  feed  on  the  bills  of  Russia 
as  well  as  on  the  mountains  of  Spain  ?  And  why  should 
not  Russians,  if  they  have  the  skill,  be  allowed  to  spin  and 
weave  their  fleeces?  Why  is  it  not  as  reputable  to  raise 
beets  as  sugar-cane  ?  Is  it  a  better  proof  of  high  civiliza- 
tion to  take  forcible  possession  of  some  tropical  island  or 
province,  and  obtain  sugar  therefrom  by  compulsory  labor, 
than  to  grow  beets  at  home  ? 

The  writer  of  tbe  article  from  which  the  quotation  has 
been  made,  after  presenting  a  picture  that  shows  most 
clearly  tbe  vigorous  life  which  pervades  the  empire  on 
account  of  its  industrial  activity,  reaches  two  sad  conclu- 
sions :  first,  that  tbe  tendency  is  not  toward  political  or 
religious  emancipation;  and  second,  that  tbe  Czar  alone 
is  rising,  not  tbe  people.  It  is  doubtless  true  that  the 
tendency  of  Russian  civilization  is  not  toward  such  a 
political  or  religious  emancipation  as  France  has  gained^ 
22 


338  RUSSIA,   LIKE   AMERICA,   AIMS   TO   GROW 

and  it  is  no  less  true,  tliat  no  sane.  Christian  well-wisher 
to  humanity  would  desire  such  a  result.  Russia  neither 
desires  a  Papal  despotism  nor  an  infidel  liberalism,  nor 
such  a  republic  as  France  has  established.  Few,  how- 
ever, out  of  France,  will  consider  this  a  just  cause  of  re- 
proach. 

It  would,  perhaps,  open  up  a  new  chapter  in  political 
economy,  if  some  philosopher  would  explain  how,  with  this 
general  and  rapid  progress  of  the  nation,  the  Czar  alone  is 
rising.  It  has  been  heretofore  supposed  that  when  a  nation 
is  making  swift  and  permanent  progress  in  agriculture, 
education,  commerce,  and  the  manufacturing  arts,  by  which 
new  sources  of  wealth  are  continually  opened,  roads  are 
laid  out,  canals  are  dug,  and  railways  are  built,  that  the 
people  are  thus  inevitably  elevated  and  refined.  It  has  been 
thought  that  these  are  the  means  by  which  modern  nations 
are  advancing ;  and  it  is  not  clear  how  Russia  can  be  an 
exception,  nor  how  one  man,  the  Czar,  can  reap  all  the 
advantage  of  this  general  movement  of  the  nation.  Such 
statements,  of  course,  show  either  an  invincible  prejudice, 
or  a  determination  to  wrest  plain  facts  to  a  wrong  conclu- 
sion. Russia  is,  doubtless,  carrying  forward  her  system  for 
the  stimulation  of  her  home  industry  with  a  rapidity  and 
success  which  have  astonished  and  alarmed  both  France 
and  England,  and  this  writer  attributes  to  Russia  a  hatred 
and  jealousy  of  England,  which  certainly  has  never  mani- 
fested itself  by  sending  her  fleets  and  armies  to  blockade 
her  ports,  to  destroy  her  commerce,  and  to  burn  her  towns 
and  batter  down  her  fortifications. 

It  is  the  successful  prosecution  of  the  protective  policy 
by  which  she  has  grown  so  rapidly  into  a  great  and  inde- 
pendent nation,  the  foremost  power  of  Europe,  able  to 
cope,  single-handed,  with  her  two  mighty  foes,  that 
aroused  the  fears  and  jealousies  of  England  as  to  lead  herj] 
goaded  on  by  France,  with  other  ends  in  view,  into  thj 
disastrous  war — disastrous  to  all  parties,  whatever  its  term* 
ination  might  be — ^for  it  could  not  materially  and  pei 
manentlj  check  the  growth  of  Russia,  while  all  partii 


BY  THE  DEVELOPMENT   OF   HER  OWN  RESOURCES.  339 

engaged  might  consume  npon  it  the  earnings  of  half  a  cen- 
tury. 

That  policy  which  Russia  adopted  for  the  purpose  of 
cherishing  her  own  industry,  and  to  render  available 
her  own  great  and  varied  resources — a  system  which  Eng- 
land denounces  as  barbarous  and  injurious  to  her  prosper- 
ity— is  the  best  possible  proof  of  political  wisdom,  showing 
that  Russian  statesmen  have  discovered  the  only  method 
by  which  their  country  can  attain  unto  a  true  civilization. 
She  has  been  reproached  with  being  simply  a  semi-bar- 
barous military  despotism,  having  neither  commerce,  nor 
manufactures,  nor  literature — as  contributing  nothing  to 
the  general  stock  of  wealth  or  knowledge — as  producing 
little,  originating  nothing,  and.  worthy  of  no  respect,  ex- 
cept such  as  may  be  given  to  the  strength  of  her  armies. 
Then  when  she  adopts  a  course  whose  object  is  to  create 
a  wealth  and  power  of  another  description,  a  greatness 
based  on  the  more  ennobling  pursuits  of  a  higher  civiliza- 
tion, she  is  accused  of  barbarous  exclusiveness  and  savage 
ignorance,  because  she  is  not  converted  to  the  free-trade 
philosophy  of  England. 

Simply  as  a  producer  of  raw  materials,  no  country,  how- 
ever productive  its  soil  may  be,  can  reach  the  highest 
stages  of  civilization.  The  intellectual  stimulus  and  cul- 
ture are  wanting,  by  which  alone  true  national  greatness 
can  be  created.  Without  commerce  or  manufactures,  Rus- 
sia would  be  a  nation  of  agriculturists,  miners,  fur-hunters, 
and  soldiers.  Such  a  nation  would  consume  all  the  earn- 
ings of  its  industry  upon  food  and  those  coarse,  cheap 
goods  which  manufacturing  nations  can  supply  with  the 
greatest  possible  advantage  to  themselves,  and  with  all  the 
profit  derived  from  machinery. 

It  would  be  the  unequal  contest  between  unskilled  man- 
ual labor  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  power  of  capital,  skill,- 
machinery,  and  steam  on  the  other,  resulting  inevitably  in 
a  low  state  of  civilization,  dependence,  and  poverty  for 
Russia — in  wealth  and  power  for  those  who  might  supply 
her  wants.    There  would  be  for  her  no  basis  on  which  to 


340  RUSSIA,   LIKE  AMERICA,   AIMS   TO   GROW 

rear  the  liigliest  forms  of  civilization,  and  slie  would  re- 
main equally  without  the  means  of  independence  or  defense. 
It  has  been  long  perceived  by  the  Eussian  government, 
that,  without  an  extended  commerce,  the  idea  of  holding  a 
first  position  among  nations  must  be  abandoned,  but  no 
profitable  foreign  commerce  could  be  maintained  without 
a  manufacturing  system  of  her  own.  The  materials  for 
almost  every  variety  of  manufacture  were  known  to  abound 
within  her  own  territory,  not  excepting  exhaustless  deposits 
of  the  precious  metals,  and  a  net-work  of  navigable  rivers 
and  lakes  offered,  throughout  all  her  vast  dominions,  the 
means  of  easy  transport ;  and  it  was  resolved,  therefore, 
to  create,  maintain,  and  perfect,  if  possible,  a  system  of 
home  manufactures,  which  should  not  only  render  her,  in 
a  measure,  independent  of  foreign  production,  but  which 
should  also  open  to  her  a  participation  in  the  commerce 
of  the  East. 

But  how  could  this  be  accomplished  without  that  "  bar- 
barous tarift',"  which  has  drawn  forth  such  loud  com- 
plaints from  England.  The  manufactures  of  Great  Britain 
are  more  effectually  protected,  by  far,  than  those  of  Rus- 
sia can  be  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  by  all  the  fostering 
care  of  the  government.  The  capital  and  skill  of  England 
have  fenced  round  her  interests  more  strongly  than  a  tariff 
of  prohibition.  Her  policy  aims  steadily  at  a  complete 
protection  of  every  branch  of  her  own  industry,  and  from, 
this  course  she  has  never  deviated  for  a  single  moment.] 
Her  free-trade  means  simply  freedom  for  all  nations  to 
sell  to  her  their  raw  material  to  the  extent  of  her  wants,| 
and  freedom  to  purchase  from  her  all  manufactured  artich 
in  return.  She  throws  no  branch  of  her  trade  open  until] 
she  is  certain  that  she  can  defy  all  competition. 

The  only  possible  course  then  open  to  Russia  was  tol 
grant  such  a  protection  to  her  infant  manufactures  as 
should  shelter  them  from  a  ruinous  competition  from 
abroad.  But  it  is  said  that,  by  this  course,  the  cost  of 
her  manufactured  articles  is  far  greater  than  it  would  be 
if  she  should  procure  them  from  England  and  the  west 


BY  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  HER  OWN  RESOUECES.    341 

of  Europe,  and  thus  tlie  tax  upon  her  imports  is  laid 
really  upon  the  consumers  at  home.  But  is  not  this  an 
entirely  inadequate  view  of  the  whole  subject?  It  is 
necessary  to  observe  the  general  result  upon  the  nation  at 
large  ;  it  is  necessary  to  compare  the  Russia  of  to-day  with 
the  empire  one  hundred  years  ago ;  or,  we  may  observe 
only  the  change  which  has  been  wrought  in  a  quarter  of 
a  century  by  the  influence  of  this  very  system  which  free- 
trade  condemns.  If  it  be  conceded,  for  argument's  sake, 
that  the  tax  imposed  upon  foreign  goods  has  been  paid  by 
the  inhabitants  of  Russia,  has  there  been  rendered  to  them 
and  the  country  at  large  no  equivalent  for  this  money  ? 

A  new  life  has  been  infused  into  all  parts  of  the  empire, 
an  increased  activity  marks  every  department  of  society ; 
roads  have  been  opened,  canals  have  been  dug,  railroads 
have  been  constructed,  steamboats  have  been  placed  on 
rivers ;  factories  have  been  built,  villages  have  sprung  up, 
and  local  markets  have  been  opened  for  the  productions  of 
the  soil.  The  establishment  of  one  principal  manufacture 
has  called  into  existence  a  host  of  dependent  but  connected 
branches,  and  countless  new  modes  of  industry,  and  new 
sources  of  wealth,  have  been  discovered  by  the  inhabitants. 
By  such  means  new  desires  spring  up,  new  wants  are 
created,  and  ingenuity  seeks  the  method  of  supply.  Thus 
mind  is  stimulated  to  eflbrt,  the  intellectual  power  of  the 
country  is  increased  and  guided  to  profitable  action. 

Capital  accumulates,  and  is  expended  upon  the  refining 
arts  of  life;  a  higher  taste  is  cultivated  in  architecture, 
dress,  and  furniture ;  a  love  for  the  beautiful  is  created, 
the  fine  arts  are  cherished,  and  a  literature  appears.  These 
are  the  processes  by  which  civilization  advances  toward 
perfection ;  upon  such  a  career  Russia  has  entered,  and 
the  aspect  which  she  has  presented  in  the  terrible  conflict 
that  tested  her  powers,  is  proof  conclusive  of  the  effi- 
cacy of  that  system  in  creating  the  elements  of  national 
strength,  while  the  extent  of  her  present  eastern  commerce 
reveals  the  rapid  progress  she  is  making.  If  a  mighty 
system  of  national  industry,  which  lays  its  quickening 


342  RUSSIA,   LIKE  AMERICA,   AIMS   TO   GROW,   ETC. 

hand  upon  the  multitudinous  resources  of  the  land,  creat- 
ing wealth  and  sending  it  through  the  empire  hy  ten 
thousand  new  channels,  can  be  produced  simply  by  the 
tax  on  imports,  certainly  it  is  a  most  profitable  expendi- 
ture for  the  nation,  yielding  dollars  in  return  for  cents 
invested. 

^Nothing,  however,  is  clearer  than  that  the  active  com- 
petition of  the  home-workers  speedily  brings  down  the 
cost  of  the  domestic  article  to  the  price  at  which  the  for- 
eign goods  could  be  purchased  if  the  trade  were  free  to 
the  foreign  rival ;  and  the  protection  granted  to  the  manu- 
facturer, instead  of  becoming  a  tax  upon  industry,  pro- 
vides new  and  more  profitable  employment  to  labor,  mul- 
tiplies the  comforts  of  the  industrial  classes — ^who  are,  in 
consequence,  better  fed,  better   clothed    and    educated — 
while  the  general   awakening  and   stimulus   of  thought 
leads,  in  the  end,  to  mechanical  invention,  discoveries  in 
science  and  art,  and  the  higher  creations  of  genius. 
'"^"^  The  rapid  advance  of  the  l!»rorthern  State,  and  the  new 
'^    career  upon  which  she  has  entered,  have  awakened  the 
I    jealousy  of  England,  and  aroused  her  fears ;  and,  lest  her 
own   commercial   supremacy   should  be    endangered,   she 
sends  forth  fieets   and  armies  to  extinguish,  if  possible, 
\    this  new  light  of  civilization  which  is  dawning  upon  the 
:    world;  and  in  order  to  protect,  in  this  manner,  her  own 
':   monied  interests,   she   is    willing  that    millions   of   lives 
;   should  be  sacrificed,  and  that  the  Papal  despotism  should, 
Lihrough  France,  be  re-established  in  Europe.     But  it  will 
prove  an  abortive  efibrt.    Sclavonic  civilization  has  become 
a  mighty  fact — its  march  is  eastward,  and  the  Euxine  and 
the  Hellespont  must  yet  be  the  center  of  its  life. 


THE  RUSSIAN  CHURCH.  848 


CHAPTER    XXXI. 


THE  RUSSIAN   CHURCH. 


In  a  religious  point  of  view,  the  contest  in  tlie  East  lay 
between  the  Russian  Church  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
Roman  Catholic  on  the  other.  The  two  leading  powers  in 
the  conflict  head  these  two  great  divisions  of  nominal,  if 
not  real  Christianity.  Protestantism,  as  a  religious  inter- 
est, did  not  enter  into  the  war. 

England  armed  for  national  aggrandizement,  or,  to 
speak  with  greater  precision,  to  prevent  what  she  deemed 
the  undue  expansion  of  a  rival  power,  which  might  lessen 
her  comparative  importance,  and  perhaps  diminish  her 
actual  strength.  •  She  did  not  wage  war  to  establish  the 
Protestant  religion  in  the  East,  much  less  the  American 
type  of  Protestantism.  If  she  gains  her  commercial  ends, 
she  will  rest  content.  The  character  of  the  Russian 
Church  then  becomes  an  exceedingly  interesting  subject 
of  inquiry. 

Without  understanding  the  nature  of  that  religion  which 
is  the  faith  of  fifty  millions  of  Russians,  we  can  form  no 
correct  judgment  upon  the  influence  which  Russia  would 
exert  upon  Turkey  and  the  East  should  she  gain  the 
ascendancy  there.  If  the  world  is  called  upon  to  choose 
between  the  Papacy  and  the  Russian  Church  as  a  ruler 
of  the  East,  we  ought  to  understand  the  distinctive  feat- 
ures of  each.  As  has  been  already  remarked,  the  Russian 
Church,  though  adopting  the  Greek  rite,  and  constituting 


344  THE  BUSSIAN   CHURCH. 

indeed  the  Greek  Church  of  modern  times,  must  not  be 
confounded  eij;her  with  the  Greek  Church  in  Turkey  or 
in  Greece. 

The  latter  have  shown  a  persecuting  spirit  which  the 
Russian  Church  has  not  manifested.  The  three  divisions 
doubtless  sympathize  with  each  other  to  a  certain  degree ; 
but  the  Church  of  Russia  will  eventually  control  and  give 
character  to  the  others,  unless  the  Allies  succeed  in  forcing 
her  back  and  repressing  her  growth.  Many — perhaps 
most  in  America — confounding  the  Greek  with  the  Rus- 
sian Church,  charge  upon  the  latter  the  spirit  of  persecu- 
tion which  assailed  our  missionaries  in  Turkey  and  Greece, 
and  are  therefore  led  to  suppose  that  the  Papal  Church 
and  that  of  Russia  are  of  similar  character ;  and  thousands 
unjustly  imagine  that  both  are  equally  bigoted,  persecut- 
ing, and  corrupt.  England  endeavors  to  persuade  the 
world  that  civilization  has  less  to  fear  from  the  Papacy 
than  from  the  Church  of  Russia.  This  opinion  most  cer- 
tainly has  no  foundation  in  truth,  but  yet  it  is  often  ex- 
pressed. 

It  is  important,  therefore,  for  Americans  to  make  them- 
selves acquainted  with  the  facts  connected  with  this  ques- 
tion, and  form  for  themselves  an  independent  judgment. 
With  the  character  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  its 
spirit,  its  aims,  and  its  doctrines,  the  United  States  have 
been  made  familiar ;  and  a  nation  that  has  been  goaded 
to  an  almosj;  universal  uprising  against  its  insolent  de- 
mands, and  its  plots  against  Republican  liberty,  will  have 
very  little  confidence  that  liberty  will  be  promoted  through 
its  influence  either  in  Europe  or  the  East.  Indeed,  one 
of  the  most  cogent  reasons  why  the  Americans  were 
sparing  of  sympathy  with  the  Allies  in  the  character  and 
aims  of  that  war,  was,  that  just  in  proportion  as  success 
attended  them,  would  the  Papacy  be  strengthened,  and  in 
that  exact  ratio,  also,  must  the  cause  of  human  freedom 
be  weakened  in  Europe,  for  the  Papacy  and  despotism  are 
natural  and  inseparable  friends  and  supporters  of  each 
other. 


taE   BUSSIAN   CHURCH.  345 

The  characteristics  of  the  Eussian  Church  are  less  known 
to  the  people  of  the  United  States.  Eussia  has  not  emptied 
her  population  by  millions  upon  our  shores,  nor  sought  to 
colonize  our  territories  for  religious  ends ;  and  no  bands  of 
priests  or  Jesuits  have  been  ordered  on  from  St.  Petersburg 
as  spies  upon  our  proceedings,  and  to  subvert,  if  possible, 
our  institutions.  We  lack,  then,  those  means  of  judging 
Russia  which  are  unfortunately  so  abundant  in  the  case  of 
Rome.  Still  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  of  Eussia  are 
sufficiently  well  known,  and  her  practice,  history  has  re- 
corded. It  will  be  found  that,  in  essential  doctrines,  there 
are  almost  no  points  of  comparison  with  the  errors  of 
Eomanism.  As  a  religious  system,  the  distinction  between 
it  and  the  Papacy  is  broad  and  palpable,  as  a  comparative 
exhibition  of  their  theories  will  show ;  and,  from  this  com- 
parison, what  the  nations  have  to  fear  from  each  may  be 
clearly  seen. 

The  Eoman  Catholic  claims  to  be  the  one  only  true 
Church — the  one  universal  Church,  whose  dominion,  of  right, 
and  by  the  authority  of  God,  extends  over  all  the  world, 
that  there  neither  is,  nor  can  be,  salvation  for  any  with- 
out her  pale,  and  that  all  who  reject  her  authority  and 
refuse  her  ordinances,  are  heretics,  to  be  punished  when- 
ever and  wherever  she  has  the  power,  and  are  to  be  re- 
garded as  in  rebellion  against  God.  ]N"or  is  this  a  claim 
to  spiritual  dominion,  or  in  matters  of  faith  only.  She 
claims,  as  the  vicegerent  of  Jesus  Christ  on  earth,  to  wield 
in  his  name  supreme  power  in  all  things,  and  to  exercise 
a  rightful  control  over  all  governments  and  rulers  of  the 
earth. 

This  involves  not  only  the  right,  but  the  duty,  to  sup- 
press all  Protestant  or  other  States,  whether  republics  or 
monarchies,  that  refuse  submission  to  her  will,  and  this 
supposed  duty  she  has  constantly  endeavored  to  perform, 
either  by  force  or  intrigue,  and  hence  her  unwearied  efforts 
to  subvert  the  government  of  the  United  States,  her  war 
apon  the  Bible,  her  assault  upon  our  schools,  her  efforts 
to  control  the  ballot-box.     Hence,  also,  her  intrigues  at 


346  THE    RUSSIAN    CHURCH. 

Jerusalem  and  Constantinople,  and  the  war  with  Russia, 
her  mighty  European  antagonist. 

These  claims  are  among  the  essential  ones  of  the  Papacy, 
never  abandoned,  never  even  abated.  Religious  toleration 
is  with  her  a  thing  unknown.  She  endures  where  she 
must,  and  crushes  where  she  can.  To  establish  these  claims, 
to  compel  the  nations  to  acknowledge  her  authority  as 
supreme  over  all  things  on  earth,  she  has  slain  fifty  mil- 
lions of  people  in  war,  at  the  stake,  in  the  dungeons  of 
the  Inquisition,  and  by  every  variety  of  outrage  and  tor- 
ture. Between  such  a  church,  claiming  the  right  of  uni- 
versal dominion,  and  a  mere  national  establishment  like 
the  Church  of  England,  local  only  in  its  character  and 
claims,  its  jurisdiction  confined  within  its  territorial  limits, 
there  is  a  distinction  broad  and  essential.  The  one  demands 
the  obedience  of  the  world,  of  all  nations — threatening 
eternal  damnation  to  all  who  refuse,  and  interposing  every- 
where, and  by  all  means,  to  enforce  its  claims,  and  dis- 
turbing thereby  the  peace  of  earth.  The  authority  of  the 
other  extends  over  a  single  people  only,  and  asserts  no 
right  to  interfere  with  the  conscience  or  worship  of  sister 
States,  and  no  commission  from  God  to  subdue  to  its  own 
faith  the  surrounding  nations. 

The  English  Church  does  not  pretend  that  it  may  right- 
fully interfere  with  religious  worship  in  the  United  States 
in  order  to  establish  here  its  own  rights,  even  if  it  had 
the  power.  But  the  Papal  Church  not  only  asserts  the 
right,  but  endeavors  to  obtain  the  power,  and  declares  that 
it  only  waits  until  the  power  is  gained,  and  that  then 
religious  liberty  shall  be  put  down  in  this  country,  and  the 
people  be  compelled  to  adopt  her  forms  and  creed,  or  be 
punished  at  her  pleasure  as  heretics.  The  Russian  Church 
is  simply  a  national  establishment  like  the  English  Church; 
like  that,  it  is  local  only,  claiming  no  jurisdiction  beyond 
its  own  territories — no  commission  from  God  to  exercise 
universal  dominion,  and  to  go  forth  to  bring  all  nations 
into  subjection  to  itself,  and  in  the  name  of  God.  It 
claims  no  right  to  be  the  troubler  of  the  world,  no  author- 


THE    RUSSIAN    CHURCH.  347 

ity  over  governments ;  it  pretends  not  to  be  the  ruler  of 
princes,  the  governor  of  kingdoms. 

The  claim  of  the  Russian  Church  is  national  only ;  that 
of  Rome  is  universal,  and  the  comparative  danger  to  the 
world  from  each  is  therefore  easily  estimated.  The  Rus- 
sian Church  will  simply  be  co-extensive  with  the  Empire. 
It  will  not  rule  the  world,  unless  Russia  should  conquer  all 
nations — a  result  which  no  one  apprehends.  Again,  the 
Romish  Church  claims  absolute  infallibility,  claims  to 
speak  and  decide  with  the  unerring  wisdom  of  God  him- 
Belf,  in  the  language  of  the  Scriptures,  "  showing"  herself 
"  to  be  God."  Such  a  Church,  from  the  necessity  of  its 
nature  and  demands,  must  be  a  persecuting  Church. 

Persecution — the  putting  down  of  error — with  such  a 
hierarchy,  assumes  the  form  of  duty,  and  heretics  are  de- 
stroyed for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  safety  of  the  world. 
The  Russian  Church  makes  no  such  claim,  and  asserts  no 
such  power;  it  is  simply  the  national  religion  of  Russia, 
holding  its  due  position  in  connection  with  the  civil  powers. 

The  Russian  Church  wields  no  such  instrument  of  power 
and  corruption  as  the  Romish  Confessional,  ^o  more  sub- 
tle or  efficient  engine  of  despotism  was  ever  contrived  by 
wicked  ingenuity,  than  this  has  proved  to  be  in  the  hands 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Priesthood. 

Possessing  themselves  by  this  means,  not  only  of  the  his- 
tory of  human  actions,  but  even  of  the  unuttered  thought 
or  desire,  and  pronouncing  judgment  upon  all  in  the  name 
of  God,  it  lays  the  immortal  soul  bound,  helpless,  and  ex- 
posed, even  to  the  heart's  most  secret  chambers,  at  the 
feet  of  a  fellow-creature  who  has  usurped  the  prerogatives 
of  God.  The  Church  of  Rome  has,  in  this  manner,  sub- 
verted the  virtue  of  thousands,  who,  but  for  her  priests, 
might  have  remained  innocent,  has  destroyed  the  purity 
and  peace  of  households,  trampling  in  secret  upon  the  holi- 
est domestic  ties,  and  has  managed  to  guide  the  policy  of 
Courts  by  its  knowledge  of  State  secrets  obtained  at  the 
confessional.  It  has  furnished  a  power  almost  sufficient  of 
itself  for  the  control  of  every  nation  where  it  has  been 


348  THE    RUSSIAN    CHURCH. 

established,  and  is  essential  to  a  perfect  spiritual  despotism. 
The  Church  of  Russia  teaches  the  duty  of  confession,  but 
then  this  confession  may  be  either  specific  or  general,  at 
the  option  of  the  one  who  confesses ;  and,  consequently,  a 
practice  which,  as  conducted  by  Rome,  is  almost  omnipo- 
tent for  evil,  is,  in  Russia,  incapable  of  being  thus  per- 
verted, and  can  neither  be  used  for  purposes  of  corruption 
or  oppression. 

The  Church  of  Rome  has,  in  all  places  and  time,  opposed 
with  her  utmost  strength  the  circulation  of  the  Scriptures 
among  the  people,  knowing  well  that  despotism  is  secure 
only  in  proportion  to  the  ignorance  of  those  whom  it 
oppresses.  Hence  its  persevering  attacks  upon  the  Bible 
and  the  free-schools  of  America.  Russia  permits  the  cir- 
culation of  the  "Word  of  God  among  her  people,  and  such 
was  the  affinity  of  the  Russian  Church  for  Protestant  prin- 
ciples and  effort,  that  in  the  reign  of  Alexander  a  Rus- 
sian Bible  Society  co-operated  with  the  British  Association 
for  the  printing  and  distribution  of  the  Scriptures. 

I^icholas,  whose  policy  was  more  exclusively  national,  and 
who  seemed  to  foresee  from  afar  the  gathering  of  that  storm 
of  hostility  in  England  and  France  which  burst  with  such 
fury  before  his  death  on  Russia,  evidently  feared  an  influ- 
ence which  he  well  knew  might  be  used  for  political 
purposes,  and  therefore  discouraged  and  broke  off  the  con- 
nection with  the  British  Bible  Society,  and  suspended  alto- 
gether the  work  which  had  been  begun.  To  ascribe  this  to 
the  intolerant  spirit  of  the  Russian  Church  seems  altogether 
a  mistake,  nor  is  there  any  evidence  that  it  originated  in 
any  hostility  to  the  circulation  of  the  Scriptures,  which 
has  always  been  allowed.  Mcholas  was  a  keen  and  most 
sagacious  observer  of  the  tendency  of  the  affairs  of  Europe. 

He  felt  the  necessity  of  protecting  his  country  at  all 
points,  and  he  was  not  willing  to  expose  himself  to  any 
peril  which  might  arise  from  a  foreign  influence  of  any 
sort  established  within  his  dominions,  and  by  which  the 
power  of  the  national  Church  might  be  diminished.  Doubt- 
less he  intended  to  use  this  national  Church  for  State  pur- 


THE    RUSSIAN    CHURCH.  349 

poses;  and  viewed  merely  in  the  light  of  worldy  policy, 
his  sagacity  has  heen  clearly  shown  by  the  result.  He  w^as 
enabled  to  concentrate  the  whole  religious  sentiment  of  the 
empire  upon  the  defense  of  the  nation  the  moment  he 
was  attacked.  Russia's  breastwork  of  united  hearts  burn- 
ing with  religious  enthusiasm  are  more  impregnable  than 
her  granite  walls,  her  frowning  artillery,  or  her  sparkling 
lines  of  bayonets. 

A  Church  that  favors  the  circulation  of  the  Bible^  how- 
ever it  may  be  entangled  in  superstitious  observances, 
holds,  nevertheless,  within  it  a  living  germ,  and  there  is 
reasonable  hope  of  its  recovery.  Again,  the  Russian 
Church  does  not  believe  in  purgatory,  nor  in  the  sale  of 
indulgences,  and  consequently  does  not  possess  one  of  the 
chief  means  of  robbery  and  delusion  so  freely  and  profita- 
bly employed  by  the  Church  of  Rome.  Nor  does  it  pre- 
scribe celibacy  for  the  clergy,  and  this  of  itself  presents  a 
feature,  which,  in  comparison  with  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  should  commend  it  to  the  world's  favorable  re- 
gard. Language  is  incapable  of  describing  the  wretched- 
ness and  sin  and  delusion  which  have  been  caused  in  the 
Papal  Church  by  "  forbidding  to  marry."  It  is  a  mourn- 
ful characteristic  of  her  apostasy. 

The  Russian  Church  is  not  entirely  free  from  the  error, 
but,  compared  with  Rome,  it  is  of  small  importance.  The 
lower  orders  of  the  clergy  are  all  married,  while  the 
bishops  and  the  highest  officers  of  the  Church  remain  in  a 
state  of  celibacy.  These  superior  ecclesiastics  are  derived 
from  the  one  only  order  of  monks  existing  in  Russia,  which 
might  rather  be  called  the  cloistered  clergy. 

The  system  of  monasteries  and  convents  has  little  or 
no  influence  in  the  Russian  State,  for  they  have  no  rich 
endowments,  and  are  merely  establishments  supported  by 
a  revenue  from  the  government;  consequently  there  can 
be  no  such  pious  robbery,  no  such  accumulation  of  land, 
or  hoarding  of  millions  of  treasure,  as  has  been  accom- 
plished by  the  similar  establishments  in  countries  governed 
by  Rome.    The  industry  and  wealth  of  the  country  are 


350 


THE  RUSSIAN   CHURCH. 


not  devoured  in  Russia  by  swarms  of  monks,  friars,  and 
priests. 

There  are  in  the  Russian  Church  two  orders  of  the 
clergy — one  constituting  the  only  order  of  monks  in  the 
empire,  from  whose  ranks  the  higher  dignitaries  of  the 
Church  are  taken ;  but  these  and  their  establishments, 
being  without  independent  ecclesiastical  revenues,  have  no 
means  of  oppressing  the  people  or  of  making  their  power 
formidable. 

Women  are  not  allowed  to  enter  nunneries  until  they 
are  forty  years  of  age ;  the  men  may  become  monks  at  the 
age  of  thirty ;  and  thus  the  Russian  Church  has  wisely 
guarded  against  the  corruptions  which  have  stained  all  the 
history  of  Romanism. 

The  intolerance  of  the  Papacy  is  not  found  in  the  Church 
of  Russia.  The  Russian  clergy  will  officiate  in  Protestant 
houses  for  worship,  and  will  also  permit  their  own  churches 
to  be  used  by  Protestant  ministers.  They  are  tolerant 
toward  all  other  denominations,  and  do  not  pretend  to 
confine  salvation  to  their  own  Church.  They  do  not  re- 
fuse to  administer  the  consolations  of  religion  to  dying 
Protestants,  and  they  permit  Protestants  to  be  buried  in 
their  cemeteries. 

-  Attempts  have  been  made  to  represent  the  Emperor  of 
Russia  as  only  an  Eastern  Pope,  to  be  as  truly  feared  and 
shunned  as  the  Pope  himself  at  Rome.  It  would  be  equally 
reasonable  to  excite  similar  prejudices  against  the  sovereign 
of  England,  who  is  the  head  of  the  English  Church,  as  the 
Czar  is  the  head  of  the  Church  of  Russia.  Such  are  the 
main  features  which  distinguish  the  Russian  from  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church. 

The  difference  is  radical  and  essential.  In  principle, 
they  are  utterly  unlike.  One  aims  at  a  despotism  uni- 
versal and  exclusive.  For  the  attainment  of  such  an  end, 
the  whole  system  has  been  most  cunningly  devised,  and 
adhered  to  with  a  constancy  which  has  almost  insured  its 
success.  Its  steadfast  aim  is  to  rule  the  world — ^to  subject 
all  nations  to  its  control.     Therefore,  its  interference  is 


THE  KUSSIAN  CHURCH.  351 

everywhere  felt,  its  tools  and  spies  are  in  every  land,  the 
disturbers  of  the  world's  peace. 

The  Church  of  Russia,  on  the  contrary,  is  the  Church 
of  a  single  nation,  having,  however,  twelve  millions  in 
Turkey,  and  some  also  in  Greece,  who  are  in  sympathy 
with  its  worship;  and  while  it  is  clogged,  debased,  and 
hindered  by  a  thousand  frivolous  and  superstitious  observ- 
ances, it  has,  nevertheless,  not  one  essential  element  of  a 
spiritual  despotism,  and  it  rejects  every  great  distinctive 
error  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  With  a  creed  ortho- 
dox in  its  essential  teachings,  and  with  the  "Word  of  God 
circulated  among  the  people,  it  can  not  be  regarded  as 
beyond  the  reach  of  reformation. 

It  has  a  deep,  strong  hold  on  the  aflections  of  the  Rus- 
sian nation,  and,  as  a  body  rising  rapidly  to  a  prominent 
position  among  nations  through  the  swift  progress  and 
expansion  of  the  mighty  state  of  which  it  is  the  religious 
basis  and  life,  it  is  worthy  of  a  careful  study  and  candid 
judgment.  It  would  reflect  no  credit  upon  the  generosity 
or  independence  of  the  American  people,  if,  in  regard  to 
the  Russian  Church,  we  either  become  the  mere  echo  of 
English  prejudices  or  interested  statements,  or  if  we  fail 
to  make  the  proper  distinction  between  the  Greek  Church 
in  Turkey,  from  which  our  missionaries  have  suffered,  and 
the  Church  of  the  Russian  Empire. 

A  country  where  the  Word  of  God  is  circulated,  where 
a  tract  distribution  is  carried  regularly  on,  by  which  four 
million  tracts  have  been  already  distributed,  should  not  be 
treated  by  Protestants  with  cold  suspicion,  much  less 
should  American  Christians  permit  the  "war  interest"  in 
England  to  excite  in  them  a  spirit  of  hostility  against  its 
Church,  which  evidently  might  be  largely  influenced  by 
American  friendship. 

The  following  extracts  from  Stanley's  Greek  Church 
will  show  what  one  of  the  most  distinguished  scholars  of 
England  thinks  of  the  importance  of  the  Russian  Church, 
its  influence  over  the  people,  and  what  it  may  yet  accom* 
plish  for  civilization  and  Christianity  in  the  East :  ^ 


352  THE    RUSSIAN    CHURCH. 

"  Western  ecclesiastical  history  would  lose  more  than 
half  its  charms,  if  it  had  not  for  its  subject  the  great 
national  Churches  of  Europe.  And,  in  like  manner.  East- 
ern ecclesiastical  history  must  fail  of  its  purpose,  unless  it 
can  find  some  field  in  which  we  can  trace  from  century  to 
century,  and  in  their  full-blown  development,  those  prin- 
ciples and  practices  of  the  Oriental  Church  which  have 
been  already  unfolded  in  general  terms. 

"  This  field  is  presented  in  the  Russian  Church.  In  it 
alone  we  trace  a  growth  and  progress  analogous  to  that 
which  Western  or  Latin  Christianity  found  in  the  Teutonic 
tribes  of  Europe.  And,  although  the  I^orthern  and  Scla- 
vonic elements  form  the  basis  of  the  Church  and  Empire 
of  Russia,  yet,  by  its  situation,  by  its  origin,  and  by  the 
singular  powers  of  imitation  with  which  its  members  are 
gifted,  it  is  essentially  Asiatic  and  Oriental.  And,  further, 
through  the  gradual  incorporation  of  Russia  into  the  com- 
monwealth of  Western  nations,  the  Eastern  Church  has 
acquired  a  voice  or  speech  which  it  has  lost,  or  has  never 
gained,  elsewhere.  The  feeling  which  the  native  Russians 
entertain  toward  the  Western  world  is  a  likeness  of  the 
feeling  which  we  ourselves  entertain  toward  the  Eastern 
world.  The  Russian  word  for  a  foreigner,  but  especially 
for  a  German,  is  *  the  dumb,'  '  the  speechless ;'  and  it  has 
happened,  within  the  experience  of  an  English  traveler, 
that  Russian  peasants,  passing  by  and  seeing  a  conversa- 
tion going  on  in  a  foreign  language,  have  exclaimed,  in 
astonishment :  '  Look  at  those  people ;  they  are  making  a 
noise,  and  yet  they  can  not  speak ! '  Very  similar  to  this 
is  the  way  in  which,  as  a  general  rule,  we  regard,  almost 
of  necessity,  the  Eastern  Churches  generally.  To  us,  with 
whatever  merits  of  their  own,  they  are  dumb.  •  Their  lan- 
guages, their  customs,  their  feelings  are  unknown  to  us. 
We  pass  by  and  see  them  doing  or  saying  something  wholly 
unintelligible  to  us,  and  we  say :  '.Look  at  those  people ; 
they  are  making  a  noise,  and  yet  they  can  not  speak ! ' 
In  a  great  measure  this  difficulty  severs  us  from  the  Rus- 
sian Church,  as  well  as  from  the  other  branches  of  Oriental  • 


THE  KUSSIAN  CHURCH.  358 

Christendom.  Still,  in  Russia,  if  anywhere  in  the  East, 
we  can  from  time  to  time  listen  and  understand  with  ad- 
vantage. The  Sclavonic  power  of  imitation  opens  a  door 
which  elsewhere  is  closed.  The  Western  influences  which, 
from  the  age  of  Peter,  have  streamed  into  Russia,  though 
they  have  often  undermined  the  national  character,  have 
yet,  where  this  is  not  the  case,  given  to  it  the  power,  not 
only  of  expressing  itself  in  Western  languages,  but  ot 
understanding  Western  ideas,  and  adapting  itself  to  West- 
ern minds.  A  Russian  alone  presents,  amidst  whatever 
defects  and  drawbacks,  this  singular  interest:  that  he  is 
an  Asiatic,  but  with  the  sensibility  and  intelligence  of  a 
European ;  that  he  is,  if  we  will,  a  barbarian,  but  with 
the  speech  and  communications  of  civilization. 

"  Another  peculiarity  of  the  history  of  the  Church  of 
Russia  is,  that  it  enables  us,  within  a  short  compass,  to  go 
through  the  whole  field  of  ecclesiastical  history,  which,  in> 
the  West,  while  familiar  to  us  in  detail,  is  too  vast  to  be 
comprehended  in  any  one  survey.  With  many  differences^ 
produced  by  diverse  causes  of  climate,  of  theology,  of  race, 
the  history  of  the  Russian  Empire  and  Church  presents  a 
parallel  to  the  history  of  the  whole  European  Church  from 
first  to  last,  not  merely  fanciful  and  arbitrary,  but  result- 
ing from  its  passage  through  similar  phases,  in  which  the 
likenesses  are  more  strongly  brought  out  by  the  broad  dif- 
ferences just  mentioned.  The  conversion  of  the  Sclavonic 
races  was  to  the  Church  of  Constantinople  what  the  con- 
version of  the  Teutonic  races  was  to  the  Church  of  Rome. 
The  Papacy  and  the  Empire  of  Charlemagne  had,  as  we 
shall  see,  their  dim  reflection  on  the  throne  of  Moscow. 
Russia,  as  well  as  Europe,  had  its  Middle  Ages,  though, 
as  might  be  expected  from  its  later  start  in  the  race  of 
civilization,  extending  for  a  longer  period.  The  Church 
of  Russia,  as  well  as  the  Church  of  Europe,  has  had  ita 
reformation,  almost  its  revolution,  its  internal  parties,  and 
its  countless  sects. 

"  The  events  are  few ;  the  characters  are  simple ;  but  we 
shall  read  in  them  again  and  again,  as  in  a  parable,  our 
23 


354  THE    RUSSIAN    CHURCH.  -j 

I 

own  sliortcomings,  our  own  controversies,  our  own  losses. 
The  parts  of  tlie  drama  are  diflerently  east.  The  Eastern 
element  comes  in  to  modify  and  qualify  principles  which 
we  have  here  carried  out  to  their  full  length,  and  beyond 
it;  but  it  is  this  very  inversion  of  familiar  objects  and 
watchwords  which  is  so  useful  a  result  of  the  study  of  j 
ecclesiastical  history,  and  which  is  best  learned  where  the 
course  of  events  is  at  once  so  unlike  and  so  like  to  our  .. 
own,  as  in  the  Church  of  Russia.  | 

"  In  Russian  history  the  religious  aspect,  on  which  our 
thoughts  must  be  fixed  in  these  lectures,  is,  on  the  one 
hand,  that  part  of  it  which  is  the  least  known,  and  yet, 
on  the  other  hand,  is  full  of  interest,  and  not  beyond  our 
apprehension.  It  has  been  sometimes  maintained  by  writ- 
ers on  political  philosophy,  that,  however  important  in  the 
formation  of  individual  life  and  character,  religion  can  not 
be  reckoned  among  the  leading  elements  of  European 
progress  and  civilization.  I  do  not  enter  into  the  general 
discussion ;  but  the  great  empire  of  which  we  are  speak- 
ing, if  it  has  not  been  civilized,  has  unquestionably  been 
kept  alive  by  its  religious  spirit.  As  in  all  the  Eastern 
nations,  so  in  Eussia,  the  national  and  the  religious  ele- 
ments have  been  identified  far  more  closely  than  in  the 
West,  and  this  identification  has  been  continued,  at  least 
outwardly,  in  a  more  unbroken  form.  Its  religious  festi- 
vals are  still  national;  its  national  festivals  are  still  re- 
ligious. Probably  the  last  great  historical  event  which  in 
any  European  state  has  externally  assumed  a  religious, 
almost  an  ecclesiastical  form,  is  nearly  the  only  event 
familiar  to  most  of  us  in  Hussian  history,  namely,  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  French  from  Moscow.  From  the  moment 
when  JSTapoleon,  according  to  the  popular  belief,  was  struck 
to  the  ground  with  awe  at  the  sight  of  the  thousand 
towers  of  the  Holy  City,  as  they  burst  upon  his  view 
when  he  stood  on  the  Hill  of  Salutation,  to  the  moment 
when  the  tidings  came  of  the  final  retreat  *  of  the  Gauls 
and  of  the  thirty  nations,'  as  they  are  called,  the  whole 
atmosphere  of  the  Russian  resistance  is  religious  as  much 


THE    RUSSIAN    CHURCH.  355 

as  it  is  patriotic.  The  sojourn  of  the  French  in  the 
Kremlin  is  already  interwoven  with  religions  legends,  as 
if  it  had  been  an  event  of  the  Middle  Ages.  A  magnifi- 
cent cathedral  has  been  added  to  the  countless  churches 
already  existing  in  Moscow  to  commemorate  the  deliver- 
ance. '  God  with  us/  is  the  motto  which  adorns  its  gate- 
way, as  it  was  the  watchword  of  the  armies  of  the  Czar. 

"  The  services  of  Christmas-day  are  almost  obscured  by 
those  which  celebrate  the  retreat  of  the  invaders  on  that 
game  day,  the  25th  of  December,  1812,  from  the  Russian 
soil ;  the  last  of  that  long  succession  of  national  thanks- 
givings, which  begin  with  the  victory  of  the  Don  and  the 
flight  of  Tamerlane,  and  end  with  the  victory  of  the 
Beresina  and  the  flight  of  ^N'apoleon.  *  How  art  thou 
fallen  from  heaven,  0  Lucifer,  son  of  the  morning  ! '  This 
is  the  lesson  appointed  for  the  services  of  that  day.  '  There 
shall  be  signs  in  the  sun,  and  in  the  moon,  and  in  the 
stars,  and  upon  the  earth  distress  of  nations  with  perplex- 
ity. Look  up  and  lift  up  your  heads,  for  your  redemption 
draweth  nigh.'  This  is  the  Gospel  of  the  day.  '  Who 
through  faith  subdued  kingdoms,  waxed  valiant  in  fight, 
turned  to  flight  the  armies  of  the  aliens.'  This  is  the 
epistle. 

"  I  have  dwelt  on  the  religious  aspect  of  this  crisis,  both 
because  it  may  serve  to  remind  us  that  there  is  at  least  one 
event  in  the  history  of  the  Eastern  Church  with  which  we 
are  all  acquainted;  and  also  because,  coming  as  it  does 
at  the  end  of  a  series  of  similar  deliverances  and  celebra- 
tions, it  brings  before  us  one  special  interest  which  the 
Russian  ecclesiastical  history  possesses,  namely,  its  rela- 
tion, both  by  way  of  likeness  and  illustration,  to  the  history 
of  the  Jewish  Church  of  old.  Hardly  in  any  European 
nation  shall  we  so  well  understand  the  identity  of  the 
religious  and  national  life  in  the  ancient  theocracy  as- 
through  the  struggles  of  the  Russian  people  against  their 
several  invaders.  The  keenness  with  which  they  appropri- 
ate the  history  of  the  old  dispensation  is  but  the  natural 
result  of  their  (in  many  respects)  analogous  situation.    Li 


356  THE   RUSSIAN   CHURCH. 

the  sculptures  of  the  cathedral  of  which  I  have  just 
spoken  as  the  monument  of  the  deliverance  of  Moscow, 
it  is  the  execution  of  one  and  the  same  idea  when  the 
groups  from  Russian  history  alternate  with  scenes  from 
the  story  of  Joshua's  entrance  into  Palestine,  of  Deborah 
encouraging  Barak,  of  David  returning  from  the  slaughter 
of  Goliath,  of  the  coronation  and  the  grandeur  of  Solo- 
mon." 

The  religious  character  of  the  Czar  of  Russia  is  thus 
described  by  Mr.  Stanley : 

"  First  is  the  Czar.  In  the  West,  as  well  as  in  the  East, 
the  frame-work  of  all  religious  and  civil  institutions  was 
molded  on  the  idea  of  a  Holy  Roman  Empire  succeeding 
to  the  Pagan  Roman  Empire  of  former  times.  But  in  the 
"West  this  institution  has  signally  failed,  as  in  the  East  it 
has  signally  succeeded.  Charlemagne  was  a  much  greater 
man  than  any  of  the  Russian  potentates  before  the  time 
of  Peter.  His  coronation  by.  Leo  was  a  much  more  strik- 
ing coronation  than  any  that  has  fallen  to  the  lot  even  of 
the  greatest  Russian  emperors.  The  theory  of  his  empire 
was  defended  by  Dante  with  far  more  genius  and  zeal 
than  ever  was  the  theory  of  the  White  Czar  by  any  poet 
or  philosopher  of  Russia.  But,  nevertheless,  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire  has  faded  away,  while  '  the  new  Csesar  of 
the  Empire  of  Orthodoxy'  still  stands.  In  part,  this  dif* 
ference  is  owing  to  the  fundamental  diversity  of  the  East- 
ern and  Western  characters.  In  part,  however,  it  was 
fostered  by  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the  Russians 
history,  and  obtained  an  importance  in  the  Russian  ChurchJ 
and  Empire  beyond  what  may  be  ascribed  to  the  same 
tendency  in  other  regions  of  the  East.  The  very  slowneg 
of  the  growth  of  the  institution  indicates  the  depth  of  it 
roots  in  the  national  character  and  history.  The  tram 
formation  of  the  Grand  Princes  of  Kieff,  Vladimir,  an( 
Novgorod  into  the  Czar  of  Muscovy,  and  of  the  Czar  of  ^ 
Muscovy  into  the  Emperor  of  all  the  Russias,  was  not  the^ 


THE   RUSSIAN   CHURCH.  357 

work  of  a  day  or  a  century ;  it  was  the  necessity  of  tlie 
long-sustained  wars  with  Tartars,  Poles,  and  Swedes ;  it 
was  the  craving  for  union  among  the  several  princes ;  it 
was  the  inheritance  of  the  ceremonial  of  the  Byzantine 
Empire,  through  the  intermarriage  of  Ivan  III  with  the 
daughter  of  the  last  Palseologus  ;  it  was  the  earnest  desire 
for  peace  under  one  head,  after  the  long  wars  of  the  Pre- 
tenders ;  it  was  the  homogeneousness  of  the  vast  empire, 
uniting  itself  under  one  common  ruler.  The  political  posi- 
tion of  the  Czar  or  Emperor  is  not  within  our  province, 
but  his  religious  or  ecclesiastical  position  transpires  through 
the  whole  history  of  his  Church.  He  is  the  father  of  the 
whole  patriarchal  community.  The  veneration  for  him 
was  in  the  Middle  Ages  almost,  it  is  said,  as  if  he  were 
Christ  himself.  The  line  of  Grecian  emperors,  so  it  was 
said  even  by  Orientals,  had  been  stained  with  heresy  and 
iconoclasm :  never  the  line  of  the  Orthodox  Czars  of  Mus- 
covy. *  He  who  blasphemes  his  Maker  meets  with  forgive- 
ness among  men,  but  he  who  reviles  the  emperor  is  sure 
to  lose  his  head.'  *  God  and  the  Prince  will  it ;  God  and 
the  Prince  know  it,'  were  the  two  arguments,  moral  and 
intellectual,  against  which  there  was  no  appeal.  '  So  live 
your  Imperial  Majesty,  here  is  my  head ;'  '  1  have  seen  the 
laughing  eyes  of  the  Czar' — ^these  were  the  usual  expres- 
sions of  loyalty.  He  was  the  keeper  of  the  keys  and  the 
body-servant  of  God.  His  coronation,  even  at  the  present 
time,  is  not  a  mere  ceremony,  but  a  historical  event  and 
solemn  consecration.  It  is  preceded  by  fasting  and  seclu- 
sion, and  takes  place  in  the  most  sacred  church  in  Russia ; 
the  emperor,  not  as  in  the  corresponding  forms  of  Euro- 
pean investiture,  a  passive  recipient,  but  himself  the  prin- 
cipal figure  in  the  whole  scene;  himself  reciting  aloud 
the  confession  of  the  orthodox  faith ;  himself  alone  on  his 
knees,  amid  the  assembled  multitude,  offering  up  the 
prayer  of  intercession  for  the  empire ;  himself  placing  his 
own  crown  with  his  own  hands  on  his  own  head ;  himself 
entering  through  the  sacred  doors  of  the  innermost  sanc- 
tuary, and  taking  from  the  altar  the  elements  of  the  bread 


358  THE   RUSSIAN   CHURCH. 

and  wine,  of  which  then  and  there,  in  virtue  of  his  conse- 
cration, he  communicates  with  bishops,  priests,  and  deacons. 
In  every  considerable  church  is  placed  a  throne  m  front 
of  the  altar,  as  if  in  constant  expectation  of  the  sudden 
apparition  of  the  sovereign.  In  every  meeting,  council,  or 
college,  is  placed  the  sacred  triangular  '  mirror,'  '  the 
mirror  of  conscience,'  as  it  is  called,  which  represents  the 
imperial  presence,  and  solemnizes,  as  if  by  an  actual  con- 
secration, the  business  to  be  transacted." 

It  IS  evident  that  a  nation,  whose  religious  and  political 
life  are  so  intimately  blended,  are  capable  of  being  pro- 
foundly moved,  either  for  defense  of  their  "  sacred  soil," 
or  to  recover  the  lost  possessions  of  their  Mother  Church. 
Seventy  millions  of  people  thus  penetrated  by  a  deep  re- 
ligious sentiment,  and  directed  by  one  who  is  at  the  same 
time  their  political  and  religious  head,  can  not  be  perma- 
nently checked  by  any  power  in  Europe. 

Mr.  Stanley's  closing  reflections  upon  the  possible  future 
of  the  Russian  Church  may  well  be  pondered  by  Ameri- 
cans now: 

"  I  have  thus  glanced  at  some  of  the  leading  characters 
of  the  modern  Church  of  Russia,  and  of  its  existing  tend- 
encies. They  will  be  enough  to  show  that  its  inherent  life 
has  neither  been  choked  by  its  own  tenacity  of  ancient 
forms,  nor  strangled  by  the  violence  of  Peter's  changes. 
But  what  its  future  will  be,  who  shall  venture  to  conjec- 
ture? Will  it  be  able  now,  in  these  its  latter  days,  to 
cease  from  foreign  imitations.  Eastern  or  Western,  and 
develop  an  original  genius  and  spirit  of  its  own  ?  Will  it 
venture,  still  retaining  its  elaborate  forms  of  ritual,  to  use 
them  as  vehicles  of  true  spiritual  and  moral  edification  for 
its  people  ?  Will  it  aspire,  preserving  the  religious  energy 
of  its  national  faith,  to  turn  that  energy  into  the  channel 
of  practical  social  life,  so  as  to  cleanse,  with  overwhelming, 
force,  the  corruption  and  vice  of  its  higher  ranks,  the  deceit i 
and  rude  intemperance  of  its  middle  and  lower  classes? 


THE   RUSSIAN   CHURCH.  359 

The  Russian  clergy,  as  they  recite  the  Kicene  Creed  in 
the  communion,  embrace  each  other  with  a  fraternal  kiss, 
in  order  to  remind  themselves  and  the  congregation  that 
the  orthodox  faith  is  never  to  be  disjoined  from  apostolical 
charity.  Is  there  a  hope  that  this  noble  thought  may  be 
more  adequately  represented  in  their  ecclesiastical  develop- 
ment than  it  has  been  in  ours  ?  Will  Russia  exhibit  to 
the  world  the  sight  of  a  Church  and  people  understand- 
ing, receiving,  fostering  the  progress  of  new  ideas,  foreign 
learning,  free  inquiry,  not  as  the  destruction,  but  as  the 
fulfillment,  of  religious  belief  and  devotion?  Will  the 
Churches  of  the  West  find  that,  in  the  greatest  national 
Church  now  existing  in  the  world,  there  is  still  a  principle 
of  life  at  work,  at  once  more  steadfast,  more  liberal,  and 
more  pacific  than  has  hitherto  been  produced  either  by  the 
uniformity  of  Rome  or  the  sects  of  Protestantism  ? 

"  On  the  answer  to  these  questions  will  depend  the  future 
history,  not  only  of  the  Russian  Church  and  Empire,  but 
of  Eastern  Christendom,  and,  in  a  considerable  measure, 
of  Western  Christendom  also.  The  last  word  of  Peter, 
struggling  between  life  and  death,  was,  as  has  been  already 
described.  Hereafter.  What  more  awful  sense  the  word 
may  have  expressed  to  him,  we  know  not.  Yet  it  is  not 
beneath  the  solemnity  of  that  hour  to  imagine  that  even 
then  his  thoughts  leaped  forward  into  the  unknown  future 
of  his  beloved  Russia.  And  to  us,  however  curious  its 
past  history,  a  far  deeper  interest  is  bound  up  in  that  one 
word,  which  we  may,  without  fear,  transfer  from  the  ex- 
piring Emperor  to  the  Empire  and  the  Church  which  he 
had  renewed — '  Hereafter.'  " 


360  THE  RUSSIAN   CHUECH  MAY  RECOVER  THE  BAST. 


CHAPTER    XXXII 


THE  EUSSIAN   CHUKCH   MAY  RECOVER  THE  BAST. 

The  observations  which  have  been  made  upon  the  Roman 
Catholic  and  Russian  Churches  will  naturally  suggest  the 
inquiry,  what  would  be  the  character  of  the  religious  influ- 
ence which  Russia  would  exert  upon  the  East  should  her 
power  be  established  there  ?  Before  attempting  a  direct 
reply  to  this  question,  there  are  some  preliminary  consid- 
erations which  deserve  attention. 

Americans  are  yet  in  a  position  to  weigh  candidly  the 
character  and  claims  of  Russia,  and  they  can  not  fail  to 
perceive  that  if  she  were  fitted,  in  a  religious  point  of  view, 
to  give  Christianity  to  the  regions  around  and  to  the  east 
of  the  Hellespont,  the  Euxine,  and  the  Caspian,  then,  in 
other  respects,  she  is  better  prepared  for  this  mission  than 
any  nation  of  Europe ;  and,  unless  some  great  change 
should  occur  in  European  politics,  America  is  the  only 
nation  that  could  co-operate  with  her  in  that  work. 

In  the  religious  aspect  of  this  question  it  can  not  be 
denied  that  Russia  has,  beyond  comparison,  a  larger  inter- 
est in  the  population  of  the  East  than  any  other  power, 
and  that  she  wields  over  them  already  an  influence  greatly 
surpassing  that  of  any  other  nation.  Twelve  millions  of 
Greek  Christians  in  Turkey  sympathize  with  her  in  her 
faith  and  general  policy,  and  regard  her  as  their  head. 
The  population  of  Greece  is  similarly  situated,  though, 
from  position,  largely  under  European  control. 


THE   RUSSIAN   CHURCH  MAT  RECOVER  THE  EAST.         361 

Russia  lias  stretched  tlie  lines  of  her  attachments  to  the 
foot  of  the  Caucasus,  and  fastens  them  upon  a  Christian 
population  there.  She  has  commercial  relations  and  polit- 
ical influence  through  all  Persia  and  even  beyond,  in  China 
and  N'orthern  Asia  in  general.  Her  facilities  for  spreading 
a  Christian  civilization  through  all  these  vast  regions  are 
greater  already  than  those  of  all  the  earth  besides.  She  is 
the  only  power  of  earth  that  can,  by  expansion,  incorpor- 
ate these  territories  under  one  government.  They  would 
become  merely  colonial  dependencies  of  France  and  Eng- 
land, not  integral  parts  of  their  home  governments.  Kot 
so  with  Russia. 

These  provinces,  if  annexed  to  her  dominions,  would 
become  incorporated  with  her,  a  part  of  herself,  as  the 
Louisiana  Purchase  and  Texas  are  now  integral  parts  of 
the  United  States.  Those  countries,  now  ruled  by  a  few 
millions  of  Turkish  masters,  treating  the  Christian  popu- 
lation as  a  degraded  caste,  would  then  be  as  much  a  part 
of  Russia  as  the  provinces  around  Moscow,  and  one  social, 
political,  and  religious  structure  would  be  extended  over 
the  whole.  There  are,  as  has  been  said,  twelve  millions 
of  Greek  Christians  in  Turkey,  and  only  one  million  of 
Roman  Catholics. 

Allowing  both  Churches  to  be  on  an  equal  footing  in 
purity  and  spiritual  life,  (which  they  are  not),  which  is, 
then,  in  the  most  favorable  position  for  spreading  Chris- 
tianity in  the  East  ?  France,  with  her  one  million  of 
Catholics,  and  twelve  millions  of  Greeks,  who  hate  and 
would  oppose  her ;  or  Russia,  with  twelve  millions  to  sym- 
pathize with  and  assist  her  ?  This,  of  course,  is  upon  the 
supposition  that  they  could  be  spiritually  prepared  to 
spread  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  The  Oriental  character  of 
the  Russian  nation,  and  the  religious  affinities  which  con- 
nect her  with  the  Christian  population  of  the  East,  desig- 
nate her  as  the  proper  agent  for  recovering  that  now- wasted 
land,  and  making  it  once  more  what  it  was  during  the 
best  days  of  the  Eastern  Empire.  That  the  breaches  are 
to  be  restored,  the  old  highways  rebuilt,  and  prosperity 


362  THE   RUSSIAN   CHURCH   MAY  RECOVER  THE   EAST. 

and  the  Gospel  once  more  revisit  "Western  Asia  to  the 
expulsion  of  Mohammedanism  and  its  wasting  misrule, 
the  student  of  prophesy  can  scarcely  doubt ;  but  opinions 
differ  widely  as  to  the  agencies  which  God  will  probably 
employ  in  producing  the  glorious  result. 

American  Christians  have  fondly  hoped  that  this  work 
has  been  committed  to  the  American,  or  at  least  to  Protest- 
ant missions.  Doubtless  they  have  accomplished  much. 
What  has  been  thus  done  in  the  heroic  spirit  of  self- 
sacrifice  and  Christian  enterprise  will  not  be  swept  entirely 
away,  whatever  changes  may  occur,  and  whoever  may  rule 
at  Constantinople. 

Still,  in  any  event  that  now  seems  possible,  Protestant- 
ism must  enter  the  East  as  a  protected  and  not  as  a  ruling 
element,  because  French  or  Russian  influence  will  predom- 
inate, and  between  these  two,  as  controlling  powers,  the 
choice  of  the  world  must  lie. 

If,  therefore,  some  power  should  hold  the  East  that  would 
tolerate  the  presence  and  efforts  of  Protestant  Christians, 
it  is  the  utmost  that  could  be  expected  while  political 
affairs  remain  unchanged.  We  know  thart  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  knows  nothing  of  toleration,  and  from 
France  and  the  Pope  there  is  absolutely  nothing  to  hope. 
If,  therefore,  Protestant  eftbrts  are  to  be  tolerated  at  all 
in  these  regions  hereafter,  it  must  be  through  the  friend- 
ship of  Russia,  while  by  her  the  main  religious  influence 
will  be  exerted,  whether  it  be  good  or  evil. 

It  has  been  already  shown  that  the  Russian  Church  has 
yet  a  living  germ — has  a  little  strength.  The  distinctive 
errors  of  the  Papacy  do  not  attach  to  her.  She  is  not  what 
most  Protestants  believe  the  Papal  Church  to  be — an  apos- 
tate and  anti-Christian  body.  On  the  other  hand,  she  is 
far  from  being  what  she  should  be.  Her  spiritual  life  and, 
power  are  overborne  and  well-nigh  smothered  by  idle  or] 
superstitious  ceremonies ;  there  is  a  lack  of  apprehension  of 
spiritual  truth,  and  ceremony  is  in  great  degree  substituted- 
for  the  religion  of  the  heart.  But  let  it  be  supposed  that) 
England,  instead  of  sending  against  her  fleets  and  armies,] 


THE  RUSSIAN  CHURCH  MAT  RECOVER  THE   EAST.  363 

instead  of  joining  a  Papal  crusade,  had  striven  to  main- 
tain the  friendly  spirit  which  existed  in  the  time  of  Alex- 
ander, when  even  the  government  co-operated  with  the 
British  Bible  Society,  might  we  not  have  seen,  ere  this,  a 
spiritual  revolution  begun  in  Eussia  ? 

Might  there  not  have  been  an  arousing  of  that  Eastern 
Church  by  a  contact  with  the  life  of  Protestantism,  and  a 
casting  aside  of  dead  forms  to  assume  the  garments  of  a 
living  holiness?  A  tract  publication  and  distribution  is 
even  now  going  on  quite  actively  in  Russia;  and  these 
tracts,  and  the  books  published  and  circulated,  are  of  a 
character  to  elevate  the  tone  of  piety,  and  quicken  and 
strengthen  the  spiritual  life.  There  seems  to  be  no  bar  to 
the  introduction  of  Protestant  Christian  literature  of  this 
description,  for  it  is  said  that  the  censorship  of  the  gov- 
ernment is  exercised  in  a  candid  and  liberal  spirit  in  regard 
to  this  religious  effort.  Who  shall  say  that  important 
changes  might  not  thus  have  been  wrought  ere  this  in 
Russia  ? 

Could  she  not  thus  have  been  enlightened,  liberalized, 
advanced  in  civilization,  and  prepared,  by  the  reception  of 
a  new  life  herself,  to  spread  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  through- 
out the  East?  Such  a  Christian  intercourse  might  have 
led  to  a  harmonious  and  righteous  settlement  of  those 
questions  which  have  since  plunged  Europe  into  a  terrible 
conflict,  whose  results  were  evil  only.  And  if  England, 
by  her  policy,  has  lost  this  opportunity  of  doing  good 
to  a  sister  state,  and  of  conferring  a  precious  boon  on 
Europe  and  the  East,  why  should  not  America  endeavor 
to  cultivate  with  her  a  friendly  alliance ;  and,  as  the  fore- 
most Protestant  nation  of  earth,  strive  to  infuse,  by  the 
help  of  God,  a  new  life  and  a  new  spirit  into  that  mighty 
people  of  the  North  ?  Then,  should  Russia  succeed  in 
establishing  herself  in  Turkey,  the  American  Churches 
may  help  to  prepare  her  to  Christianize  the  East,  and 
share  with  her  the  labor  and  the  honor  of  the  work.  Invec- 
tives of  the  most  bitter  kind  were  heaped  upon  Nicholas  be- 
cause of  the  proposition  which  he  made  to  England.   Would 


364  THE   RUSSIAN   CHURCH   MAY  RECOVER  THE   EAST. 

there  have  been  more  dishonor  in  accepting  that  offer,  and 
thereby  securing  the  peace  of  Europe,  than  in  engaging  in 
a  bloody  war,  in  order,  not  to  save,  but,  in  conjunction 
with  France,  to  obtain  the  exclusive  control  of  Turkey  ? 

Leaving  the  question  of  right,  of  moral  principle,  to  be 
discussed  elsewhere,  let  it  be  supposed  that  England  had 
accepted  the  offer  of  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  and  that  even 
now  the  fall  of  the  Turkish  Empire  were  passed,  the  Czar 
ruling  over  Constantinople,  and  England  instead  of  France 
established  in  Egypt,  with  her  railroad  or  ship-canal,  or 
both,  across  the  Isthmus  of  Suez,  opening  to  Europe  once 
more  this  old  highway  to  India.  At  the  same  time,  let  it 
be  imagined  that  Russia  had  perfected  one  eastward  route, 
by  railroad,  through  Siberia,  across  her  vast  mineral  re- 
gions, to  the  head  of  navigation  on  the  Amoor,  thus  unit- 
ing St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow  with  the  Pacific  ;  and 
another  Asiatic  highway,  by  the  Caspian,  the  Aral,  and 
the  connecting  waters — would  Europe  and  the  world  suffer 
more  from  this  arrangement  than  from  a  sanguinary  war 
for  much  more  questionable  ends?  Could  Russia,  by 
friendly  association  with  such  a  Protestant  power  as  either 
England  or  America,  be  made  to  sympathize  with  the 
spirit  of  evangelical  religion,  she  could  effect  more  for  the 
recovery  of  the  East  than  all  Christendom  besides. 

Such  an  opportunity  as  was  never  presented  before  is 
now  offered  to  the  American  government  and  American 
Churches  to  cultivate  with  that  power  friendly  relations, 
not  as  against  others,  but  such  as  are  proper  to  establish 
with  all.  Would  not  this  advance  the  general  cause  of 
liberty  and  religion  more  than  estrangement  and  a  cause- 
less hostility? 


I 


STRUCTURE  AND  WORKING  OF  RUSSIAN  GOVERNMENT.     365 


CHAPTER    XXXIII 


STEUCTURK   AND  WORKING    OF  THE   RUSSIAN   GOVERNMENT. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  Crimean  war,  unwearied 
pains  were  taken  to  spread  throughout  the  civilized  world 
the  idea  that  the  government  of  Kussia  is  merely  a  heart- 
less, crushing,  military  despotism,  with  no  redeeming 
quality,  no  element  of  progress,  cherishing  no  regard  for 
the  people,  and  no  desire  for  their  advancement;  and, 
therefore,  the  war  was  declared  to  be  one  of  civilization 
against  barbarism — of  humanity  against  the  one  great  foe 
of  liberty  and  man. 

This  accusation  is  certainly  a  very  grave  one,  and  de- 
serves our  serious  regard.  If  such  is  the  character  of 
Russia,  and  if  her  growth  is  but  a  prolonged  crusade 
against  human  rights  and  happiness  and  hopes ;  if,  more- 
over, the  powers  which  assaulted  her  are  the  firm  friends 
of  popular  freedom,  and  took  up  arms  to  establish  it,  then 
have  they  a  right  to  expect  American  sympathy,  and  it 
ought  to  be  freely  bestowed.  But  they  who  remember 
how  our  own  country  has  been  vilified  in  the  same  quar- 
ter, will  be  disposed  to  regard  with  some  suspicion  similar 
charges  against  Russia;  while  the  idea  that  the  Allies 
engaged  in  a  contest  for  the  defense  of  popular  rights  is 
already  abandoned  by  most.  Again,  nothing  can  be  more 
ungenerous,  not  to  say  absurd,  than  to  rake  up  from  the 
records  of  other  ages,  whatever  can  be  discovered  there, 
of  ignorance,  barbarity,  or  tyranny,  and  present  it  as  a 


S66      STRUCTURE  AND  WORKING  OF  RUSSIAN  GOVERNMENT. 

picture  of  Russia  as  slie  is  at  present.  The  true  question 
is,  Whether  Russia,  in  spite  of  all  crimes  of  the  past,  or 
errors  in  her  government  and  general  policy,  is  sincerely 
endeavoring,  and  with  good  hope  of  success,  to  establish 
a  form  of  civilization  by  which  the  Sclavonic  races  may 
be  elevated. 

Let  it  be  granted  that  the  Emperor  of  Russia  possesses 
unlimited  power.  That  does  not  of  itself  demonstrate  that 
the  government  is  despotic  and  cruel,  regardless  of  the 
welfare  of  its  subjects.  The  true  question  is.  How  is  this 
power  actually  employed?  Is  the  Czar  only  a  tyrant, 
crushing  the  proper  energies  of  his  people  merely  that  he 
may  rule  supreme  ?  Or,  is  he  the  exponent  of  the  nation's 
will,  the  representative  of  a  national  sentiment,  the  recog- 
nized defender  of  a  nation's  faith,  the  guardian  of  a  na- 
tion's resources  and  honor,  a  chieftain  to  direct  a  nation's 
power  ? 

Doubtless  the  truth  lies  between  these  two  suppositions ; 
but,  then,  all  the  reliable  evidence  in  the  case  shows  that 
it  coincides  far  more  nearly  with  the  last  supposition  than 
with  the  first.  ISTothing  is  more  deceitful  than  names.  A 
monarchy  may  be  liberal ;  a  democracy  may  be  a  despot- 
ism of  the  most  hateful  character ;  and  even  in  a  consti- 
tutional monarchy,  intelligence  and  merit  may  be  con- 
stantly trampled  under  foot  by  a  hereditary  and  incompe- 
tent nobility,  absorbing  both  the  honor  and  wealth  of  a 
country. 

Notwithstanding  all  the  aspersions  which  have  been  cast 
upon  the  ^N'orthern  Empire,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that 
there  is  no  state  in  Europe  where  talent  is  so  certainly 
recognized  and  employed ;  where  the  ablest  man  so  surely 
fills  the  most  important  post ;  where  the  road  to  preferment 
is  so  freely  opened  to  merit,  as  in  Russia ;  and  that  govern- 
ment is  not,  in  the  proper  sense,  a  despotism,  where  an 
unimpeded  ascent  is  opened  from  the  very  lowest  to  the 
highest  positions  in  society.  The  candid  and  philosophic 
Erman  presents  the  following  view  of  the  structure  and 
working  of  the  Russian  system,  which  should  be  carefully 


t 


STRUCTURE  AND  WORKING  OF  RUSSIAN  GOVERNMENT.      367 

studied  by  those  who  have  been  led  to  think  of  it  only  aa 
an  engine  of  tyranny  : 


"  If  we  were  to  endeavor  to  classify  the  inhabitants  of 
the  capital,  according  to  those  circumstances  of  life  which 
are  pervading  and  essential,  we  certainly  should  not  adopt 
the  official  distribution  of  the  population  into  fifteen  classes. 
The  nation,  in  truth,  fall  naturally  into  a  few  leading 
groups,  which  remind  us  of  the  division  of  organic  bodies 
in  natural  history,  into  artificial  systems  and  natural  fam- 
ilies. Grouped  in  this  manner,  the  inhabitants  of  the 
capital  come  under  the  following  heads : 

"  1.  The  numerous  class  of  persons  engaged  in  the  serv- 
ice of  the  state,  and  enjoying,  consequently,  high  privi- 
leges, and  who,  collectively  and  exclusively,  are  entitled 
and  bound  to  wear  the  state  uniform  (Mundir). 

"2.  Individuals  who  enjoy  high  privileges,  not  for  their 
own  services,  but  owing  to  their  relationship  or  connection 
with  the  first  class.  Considerable  estates  and  a  sort  of 
hereditary  nobility  distinguish  this  class,  which  is  not, 
however,  very  numerous. 

"  3.  Foreigners,  chiefly  merchants,  who,  from  a  senti- 
ment of  hospitality,  converted  into  a  maxim  of  state,  are 
treated  with  more  consideration  than  is  strictly  due,  ac- 
cording to  the  popular  mode  of  thinking,  to  their  occupa- 
tions and  employments. 

"  4.  Russian  merchants  and  handicraftsmen,  partly  free, 
partly  in  servitude. 

"  5.  Russians  engaged  in  trades  and  manual  arts,  at 
their  own  choice  and  on  their  own  account,  or  in  the  serv- 
ice of  others,  and  who  have  the  lowest  amount  of  privilege. 
These,  also,  are  either  freemen  or  serfs ;  but  this  circum- 
stance is  here,  as  in  the  case  of  the  fourth  class,  of  little 
outward  value,  and  is  hardly  to  be  detected  in  the  actual 
relations  of  life.  The  clergy  do  not  constitute  a  particulai 
group ;  but,  according  to  circumstances,  belong  either  to  the 
official  class  or  to  the  people,  and  seem  to  form  a  mean 
between  both.  : 


^^TRRAfiv* 


368      STRUCTURE  AND  WORKING  OF  RUSSIAN  GOVERNMENT. 

"  In  the  modern  language  of  St.  Petersburg,  one  con- 
stantly hears  a  distinction  of  the  greatest  importance  con- 
veyed in  the  inquiry  which  is  habitually  made  respecting 
individuals  of  the  educated  class :  Is  he  a  plain  coat  or  a 
uniform  ?  However  one  may  be  surprised  and  shocked  at 
first  at  the  unusual  value  thus  set  on  an  outward  decora- 
tion, and  at  the  abrupt  line  which  severs  the  members  of 
the  same  community,  yet  the  system  grows  more  compre- 
hensible, and  less  oflensive,  when  we  ^x  our  attention  on 
its  actual  working. 

"  In  truth,  though  the  Russian  official  is  sharply  and 
completely  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  people  by  his 
uniform,  yet  the  aristocracy  thus  created  is,  possibly,  less 
odious  than  that  of  other  countries ;  for  its  internal  organ- 
ization is  extremely  simple ;  all  who  belong  to  the  order 
are  on  a  perfectly  equal  footing.  In  the  privileged  class 
there  is  no  peculiarly  favored  caste. 

"  Again,  within  this  wide  circle  of  privileged  equals, 
personal  ability  and  agreeableness  of  manners  are  duly 
appreciated.  The  way  in  which  the  interests  of  the  in- 
dividual are  involved  with  the  public  service  gives  rise  to 
an  *  esprit  du  corps/  and,  besides,  entrance  into  the  most 
favored  class  in  the  nation  seems  to  be  as  easy  as  it  is 
desirable ;  thus  the  public  servants  in  Russia  form,  in 
truth,  a  class  of  nobility  which  may  be  called  an  order  of 
merit,  which  has  maintained  itself  in  greater  purity  here 
than  in  other  states,  because  Peter  I  bestowed  the  offices 
and  employments  which  had  formerly  been  held  for  per- 
sonal services  to  the  autocrat  only  as  rewards  for  faithful 
service  to  the  state. 

"  Every  kind  of  public  service  carries  with  it  some  per- 
sonal immunities,  and  only  a  certain  advancement  in  offi- 
cial rank  is  required  to  make  them  hereditary.  Thus,  for 
example,  the  acquisition  of  landed  property,  and  of  serfs 
attached  to  it,  is  reserved  for  a  certain  rank,  (the  eighth 
of  the  artificial  classes) ;  but,  as  hereditary  succession  is  in- 
separable from  these,  there  thus  arises  hereditary  nobility. 
It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  in  society  in  St.  Petersburg, 


STEUCTURB  AND  WORKING  OF  RUSSIAN  GOVERNMENT.      369 

where  there  is  a  constant  rivalry  between  the  official  and 
hereditary  nobles,  the  former  always  have  the  upper  hand. 
Here  the  love  of  rank  or  office  is  spoken  of  always  as  a 
peculiar  and  noble  passion ;  while  one  not  actuated  by  the 
thirst  for  honors  is  described  by  the  word  Nedorosl  (unde- 
veloped), a  term  applied  in  old  times  to  those  who,  from 
immaturity  or  bodily  defect,  were  unfit  to  bear  arms. 

"  The  mutual  relation  of  the  official  and  the  hereditary 
ranks  in  St.  Petersburg  seems  to  be  very  distinctly  marked, 
if  it  be  only  admitted  that  a  foreigner  here  can  really  get 
an  insight  into  the  social  system.  Bat  the  stranger  is  sure 
to  feel  immediately  the  cautious  reserve  with  which  the 
natives  converse  with  him ;  and  he  soon  discovers  that  the 
prompt  attention  and  civility  which  he  experiences  in 
society  must  be  ascribed  to  the  desire  to  conceal  the  repug- 
nance felt  toward  every  thing  foreign,  which  it  would  be 
inhospitable  to  avow.  Among  themselves,  the  Russians  of 
the  upper  classes  are  bound  together  by  a  feeling  of  kin- 
dred, in  consequence  of  which  they  never  feel  quite  at  ease 
but  in  purely  national  circles. 

"  These  peculiarities  must  not  be  ascribed  to  the  influence 
of  despotism,  nor  to  any  wish  to  conceal  from  strangers, 
the  backwardness  of  the  country.  They  originate  in  a 
positive  homogeneousness  of  disposition,  which  unites  the  . 
Russians  as  one  people,  and  makes  them  involuntarily 
shrink  from  contact  with  a  foreigner  as  from  something 
heterogeneous.  It  can  not  be  doubted  that,  in  feeling  and 
moral  sentiments,  the  Russians  differ  fundamentally  from 
the  people  of  Western  Europe ;  and  they  themselves  say 
that  a  stranger  must  ohrusyety — ^that  is,  become  Russified — 
before  he  can  properly  appreciate  their  national  character. 

"  With  respect  to  the  intellectual  cultivation  of  the  class  ,, ,  4^ 
here  referred  to,  it  is  impossible  to  make  a  general  estimate 
of  it,  or  to  describe  it  in  terms  universally  applicable,  for 
in  this  very  respect  are  found  the  widest  differences  in  the 
same  rank  of  life.  N'aval  officers,  civilians  engaged  in  the 
administration  of  state,  and  philosophers  by  profession, 
members  of  the  academy  and  other  public  institutions,  all 
24 


370      STRUCTURE  AND  WORKING  OF  RUSSIAN  GOVERNMENT. 

belong  to  the  privileged  class,  and  meet  together  as  equals. 
It  vi^ere  more  to  the  purpose,  and  more  capable  of  being 
done  briefly,  to  explain  what  they  understand  by  social  re- 
finement. Here  the  national  circle  is  characterized  by  an 
unusual  degree  of  dexterity  in  the  manifold  arts  of  society, 
by  a  correct  and  practiced  sense  of  outward  propriety,  and 
an  extraordinary  faculty  of  quick  comprehension,  and  of 
lively  repartee,  often  combined  with  great  felicity  of  ex- 
pression. On  this  point  previous  travelers  all  agreed, 
though  they  difier  most  unaccountably  on  many  others. 
They  are  obviously  in  the  wrong,  however,  when  they 
ascribe  these  social  gifts  to  the  influence  of  French  man- 
ners. The  social  refinement  of  the  Russians  is  altogether 
of  home  growth,  founded  in  the  moral  temperament  of 
the  nation,  and  plainly  indicated  in  the  structure  of  the 
language." 

E-ussia,  then,  under  the  external  forms  of  its  imperial 
government,  cherishes  a  true  and  most  important  demo- 
cratic element,  and  has  succeeded,  in  a  degree  surpassing 
any  other  state  in  Europe,  in  making  merit  the  basis  of 
rank  and  the  condition  of  power.  The  same  result  is  aimed 
at  as  in  free  America — to  place  in  office  the  ablest  man ; 
and  if  the  system  is  liable  to  abuse  through  the  almost 
unrestrained  will  of  one  man,  it  must  also  be  remembered 
that  the  popular  mind  makes  many  and  most  egregious 
mistakes  in  the  selection  of  its  office-bearers. 

Russia  depends  not  upon  a  hereditary  and  imbecile  aris- 
tocracy for  the  operations  of  her  government,  but  draws 
continually  fresh  life  and  power  from  the  people  at  large, 
regarding  not  birth  or  wealth  in  its  selection,  but  elevat- 
ing merit  only,  and  having  constantly  at  its  disposal  the 
intellectual  strength  of  the  nation.  The  stimulus  which  is 
thus  infused  into  the  whole  mass  of  Russian  society,  reach- 
ing to  even  the  lowest  circles,  may  thus  be  readily  con- 
ceived. An'  order  of  merit,  an  aristocracy  of  talent,  is  thus 
established,  to  counteract  the  paralyzing  influence  of  the 
hereditary  nobility;  and  though  the  man  who  wins  rank 


STRUCTURE  AND  WORKING  OP  RUSSIAN  GOVERNMENT.      371 

bj  merit  retains  it  as  hereditary  in  his  family,  yet  that 
family  is  in  turn  open  to  the  free  competition  of  those  who 
continually  rise  from  below. 

A  man  may  hold  rank  as  an  empty  title,  but  office  and 
power  are  bestowed  upon  those  alone  who  are  thought  to 
possess  fitness  and  capacity.  The  liberalizing  influence  of 
such  a  feature  as  a  nobility  of  merit  can  scarcely  be  esti- 
mated, because  of  the  degree  to  which  that  word  "  despot- 
ism'' has  blinded  the  judgment  to  the  actual  facts. 

If  that  government  is  really  the  most  democratic  which 
opens  freely  the  door  of  preferment  to  actual  merit ;  if  that 
is  most  liberal  which  selects  widely  from  the  people  those 
who  appear  most  capable,  and  allows  among  its  officers  only 
that  official  distinction  which  has  been  honestly  won  by 
service  performed,  then  Russia  is  far  more  liberal  and 
democratic  than  England,  which  so  bitterly  condemns  her 
as  despotic  and  barbarous.  The  Emperor  of  Russia  need 
not  hesitate  to  compare  his  system  with  that  of  England, 
and  let  them  both  be  judged  by  their  fruits.  England  and 
Russia  confronted  each  other  at  Sebastopol,  and  there  the 
world  has  had  a  fair  opportunity  of  observing  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  two  governments  as  they  appear  in  action, 
and  the  sympathy  of  each  with  merit,  aside  from  birth  and 
rank. 

Russia,  in  her  hour  of  peril,  sought  for  her  ablest  man. 
The  government  asked  not  how  many  epaulets  were  on 
Jiis  shoulders,  or  how  many  stars  shone  on  his  bosom,  but 
rhether  he  had  courage,  skill,  daring,  invention— in  short, 
whether  he  could  defend  Sebastopol.  Such  a  man  was 
found  in  a  mere  captain  of  engineers,  and  over  the  heads 
of  all  titled  and  noble  ones  he  was  placed  in  command  of 
the  defensive  works  of  the  beleaguered  fortress ;  and  in  two 
weeks  a  barrier  was  erected  that  France  and  England  could 
neither  cross  nor  force,  and  the  whole  aspect  of  modern 
war  was  changed.  N'or  was  this  the  single  example  of  the 
operation  of  the  system.  The  whole  defense,  by  the  reluct- 
ant confession  of  the  Allies  themselves,  had  exhibited  not 
the  forced  working  of  mere  human  machines  which  bad 


372      STRUCTURE  AND  WORKING  OF  RUSSIAN  GOVERNMENT. 

been  anticipated,  but  the  most  intense  intellectual  activity, 
that  has  manifested  itself  in  a  fertility  of  resource,  a  nov- 
elty of  invention,  a  skill  in  the  use  of  means,  and  a  judg- 
ment to  direct  the  right  thing  at  the  right  time,  which  has 
never  been  surpassed. 

It  demonstrates  the  efficiency  of  that  scheme  which 
avails  itself  of  capacity  wherever  found,  even  in  the  ranks, 
and  elevates  it  to  the  fitting  position,  and  bestows  the 
proper  reward.  Such  a  government  reaches  democratic 
results  under  the  forms  of  an  empire.  England,  on  the 
contrary,  boasts  of  her  constitutional  liberty,  of  a  govern- 
ment regarding  the  welfare  of  the  people ;  and  calls  upon 
the  world  to  aid  in  crippling  the  tyranny  of  Russia,  and 
invokes  the  sympathy  of  the  nations  on  behalf  of  these 
down-trodden  millions.  England  called  for  her  men  of 
rank,  of  titles,  epaulets,  and  stars ;  she  placed  men  in  the 
ranks,  and  kept  them  there,  whatever  their  merit.  She  put 
nobles  in  office,  whatever  their  incapacity,  and  one  titled 
imbecile  was  only  displaced  to  make  room  for  another 
equally  helpless ;  and  so  incapacity  and  mismanagement 
marked  every  fatal  step  of  her  enterprise,  and  under  it  the 
finest  army  that  England  ever  equipped  miserably  and 
fruitlessly  perished. 

Which,  then,  of  these  two  systems  should  be  denona- 
inated  a  despotism  :  that  which  by  intrusting  the  conduct 
of  alFairs  to  the  ablest  men  wherever  they  can  be  found, 
which  excites  and  brings  into  requisition  the  whole  talent 
of  a  country,  forming  a  noble  order  based  upon  merit  only, 
or  that  which  represses  and  crushes  all  merit  under  a 
weight  of  titled  shams  and  decorated  imbecilities?  In 
true  democracy;  in  opening  paths  by  which  the  people 
may  rise ;  in  her  appreciation  and  reward  of  real  merit, 
however  humble  its  position ;  in  her  disregard  of  baubles 
on  a  man's  coat,  or  the  names  of  his  ancestors,  Russia  is 
far  in  advance  of  England,  and  approximates  in  this  re-s 
spect  the  spirit  and  practice  of  America.  It  is  not  entirely 
a  misnomer  to  call  Russia  a  democracy,  governed  by  an 


STRUCTURE  AND  WORKING  OF  RUSSIAN  GOVERNMENT.      373 

emperor — England  a  constitutional  monarchy,  under  the 
despotism  of  an  aristocracy. 

Another  liberalizing  influence  in  the  Russian  system, 
of  a  most  important  character,  tending  strongly  to  the 
elevation  of  the  people,  is  that  municipal  system  which 
embraces  so  large  a  portion  of  the  rural  population. 
Sheltered  within  these  small  municipalities,  the  germs 
of  national  freedom  are  planted  thick  throughout  the 
empire,  and  they  contain  the  safeguard  of  the  present,  and 
the  promise  for  the  future.  This  system  must  be  studied 
in  order  to  understand  the  condition  of  the  Russian 
peasantry,  which  has  been  so  widely  and  utterly  misrepre- 
sented. The  attention  of  the  reader  is  invited  to  the 
following  accounts  of  these  rural  communities,  the  first  con- 
densed by  the  London  Quarterly  from  Baron  Haxthau- 
sen's  "^N'otes:" 

"The  great  feature  of  the  rural  system  is,  that  every 
head  of  a  peasant  family  is  a  member  of  a  commune,  and 
as  such  has  a  right  to  a  portion  of  land.  These  village  com- 
munities, which  are  found  in  their  most  perfect  state  on  the 
domains  of  the  crown,  have  a  very  regular  though  compli- 
cated organization.  At  the  head  of  each  village  is  the  staros- 
ta,  who  presides  over  a  council  called  the  ten — because,  says 
the  Baron,  every  ten  families  are  entitled  to  nominate  a 
councilor ;  but  we  think  it  more  likely,  both  from  the  dis- 
tinctness of  the  title  and  its  application,  and  from  the  fluc- 
tuating number  of  members  which  must  have  attended  such 
a  system  as  the  Baron  supposes,  that  the  council  itself  con- 
sisted originally  of  ten  persons,  and  no  more.  These  officers 
are  all  elected  annually  by  the  peasants.  Their  duty  is  to  di- 
vide the  obrok,  which  is  levied  upon  the  community  collect- 
ively, among  the  individual  members,  according  to  their 
ability ;  and  to  distribute  any  lands  which  may  escheat  to 
them  by  the  death  of  the  occupiers.  They  also  form  a 
court  for  the  settlement  of  local  disputes  and  the  punish- 
ment of  minor  offenses ;  in  short,  there  is  perfect  self-gov- 


h 


374     STRUCTURE  AND  WORKING  OF  RUSSIAN  GOVERNMENT. 

eminent  as  regards  internal  matters.  Several  of  these  vil- 
lages form  a  district,  under  an  officer  styled  a  starchina^ 
who,  with  assessors,  holds  a  superior  court  and  levies  the 
recruits  required  for  the  army.  He  is  elected  by  deputies 
sent  from  the  villages  within  his  jurisdiction.  A  number 
of  these  starchinates  again  form  a  volost,  under  a  function- 
ary, also  elective,  who,  with  his  assessors,  presides  over  a 
court  possessing  higher  as  well  as  wider  authority.  We 
think  it  is  impossible  not  at  once  to  be  struck  with  the 
resemblance  of  this  system  to  that  of  frankpledge,  com- 
monly said  to  have  been  founded  by  Alfred.  Our  old 
tithing  was  generally  coextensive  with  the  modern  parish, 
and  is  said  to  have  been  so  called  as  containing  ten  free- 
holders. Whether  this  is  exactly  correct  or  not  may  be 
doubtful ;  but  certain  it  is  that  here,  as  in  Russia,  the  num- 
ber ten  had  something  to  do  with  the  arrangement ;  and  the  ^ 
persons,  whether  ten  in  fact,  or  more  or  fewer,  were  sure- 
ties or  free-pledges  to  the  king  for  the  good  behavior  of 
each  other.  They  annually  elected  a  president,  called  the 
tithing-man  or  headborough,  who  therefore  answered  to 
the  Russian  starosta.  Ten  of  these  tithings  formed  a  hund- 
red under  its  bailiff,  who,  like  the  starchina,  held  his  hund- 
red-court for  the  trial  of  causes.  Many  of  these  hundreds 
together  formed  a  shire,  having,  like  the  volost,  its  higher 
or  county  court  under  the  Shirereeve,  who  was  formerly,,  as 
mentioned  in  a  statute  of  Edward  the  First's  reign,  (and 
exactly  as  now  in  Russia),  chosen  by  the  inhabitants. 

"The  condition  of  the  crown  peasants  has  been  very 
much  improved,  under  Nicholas,  by  the  establishment  of 
the  ministry  of  domains — the  Russian  '  Woods  and  For- 
ests ' — ^but  said  to  be  more  economical  in  its  stewardship 
than  ours — a  question  too  delicate  for  journalistic  decision. 
Its  duty  embraces  a  rigid  care  of  all  the  imperial  estates, 
but  more  especially  the  protection  of  the  poor  from  the 
extortion  of  the  employees ;  and  this  function  certainly 
seems  to  be  so  discharged  that  the  crown  villages  are 
everywhere  the  envy  of  those  belonging  to  private  persons. 
All  the  peasants  are  free  to  go  where  they  like ;  and  any 


STRUCTURE  AND  WORKING  OP  RUSSIAN  GOVERNMENT.     375 

man  leaving  his  village  to  exercise  a  trade  pays  no  higher 
tribute  than  his  share  would  have  been  at  home  as  an  un- 
skilled laborer;  whereas  the  nobles  generally  charge  the 
out-living  mechanic  according  to  their  estimate  of  his  earn- 
ings. Meantime,  the  ministry  of  domains  has  a  sort  of 
museum  of  geology,  agriculture,  and  manufactures,  at  its 
office  in  each  province ;  and  in  many  villages  it  has  estab- 
lished elementary  schools  for  the  peasants.  The  ^Auto- 
crat's' hand  is  everywhere  felt  indeed — or,  at  least,  every- 
where wished  for.  By  stringent  laws — whereon  no  man 
in  that  region  dares  to  exercise  his  talent  for  quibbling,  or 
any  other  tricks  of  evasion — he  has  prevented  the  manu- 
facturers from  exercising  over  their  people  that  tyranny 
which  the  Manchester  school  have  imported  with  their 
cotton  from  the  latitude  of  Louisiana.  The  sanitary  con- 
dition of  the  workshops  is  matter  of  most  strict  surveil- 
lance— the  truck  system  forbidden — and  every  master 
forced  to  provide  a  hospital,  a  physician,  and  a  school. 

"  In  some  parts  the  soil  is  cultivated  by  quite  a  different 
class  from  any  we  have  hitherto  spoken  of :  they  go  by  the 
name  of  Polowniki,  are  perfectly  free,  and  seem  to  stand 
to  the  owners  of  the  land  in  nearly  the  same  relation  that 
our  tenant-farmers  do.  Their  existence  as  a  distinct  class 
may  be  traced  to  a  very  remote  period — some  antiquaries 
say  even  so  far  back  as  the  eleventh  century.  An  ukase, 
in  1725,  declared  that,  not  being  serfs,  they  might  go 
where  they  liked,  subject  to  certain  regulations ;  and  their 
condition  was  further  regulated  by  an  order  of  the  Min- 
ister of  the  Interior,  in  1827.  Their  present  tenure  seems 
to  be  nearly  as  follows  :  The  rent  consists  of  half  the 
harvest — the  tenant  finding  the  stock,  as  also  the  labor  in 
the  erection  of  farm-buildings,  for  which  the  landlord  pro- 
vides the  materials.  The  length  of  the  leases  varies  from 
six  to  twenty  years,  but  either  party  contemplating  an 
actual  dissolution  of  the  connection  must  give  a  year's 
notice  before  the  expiration  of  the  expressed  period." 

The  English  reviewer  finds  a  parallel  to  this  system,  as 


376      STRUCTURE  AND  WORKING  OF  RUSSIAN  GOVERNMENT. 

is  seen,  in  the  rural  institutions  of  England  in  the  time  of 
Alfred,  which  were  the  germs  of  the  British  constitution ; 
and  why,  therefore,  do  they  not  contain  also  a  guarantee 
of  the  future  of  Russia  ?  The  American  reader  will  at 
once  perceive  a  strong  resemblance  in  these  ''  communes'* 
to  those  IS'ew  England  municipalities,  the  townships, 
which  were  the  nurseries  of  our  intelligence  and  our  lib- 
erties. The  elevating  principle  of  self-government  is  im- 
bedded in  both,  and  that  is  a  principle  not  only  of  life  but 
of  power. 

The  second  extract  is  from  a  writer  in  Harper's  Maga- 
zine, professing  to  give  the  very  words  of  an  intelligent 
Russian,  explaining  the  process  by  which  emancipation 
was  going  swiftly  forward  in  1854.  The  speaker  is  de- 
scribing the  dawn  of  freedom  for  the  serfs,  which,  since  he 
wrote,  they  have  obtained  : 

"  A  reaction  commenced  at  the  beginning  of  the  present 
century;  and,  since  that  time,  a  system  of  emancipation 
has  been  silently  operating  in  Russia,  to  which  the  world 
can  show  no  parallel.  In  the  first  year  of  the  century, 
Alexander  made  it  a  fundamental  law  of  the  empire  that 
no  more  grants  of  serfs  should  be  made  to  any  individual 
whatever.  In  the  mean  time,  the  extravagance  and  profli- 
gacy of  the  nobles  had  passed  all  bounds.  They  became 
popularly  known  as  Velmoje — '  those  who  say  and  it  ia 
done.'  Their  expenditures  outran  their  income,  and  they 
were  forced  to  mortgage  their  estates.  Institutions  were 
established  by  the  emperor  for  lending  money  to  these 
spendthrifts,  at  a  high  rate  of  interest,  secured  by  mort- 
gages upon  their  lands  and  the  serfs  pertaining  to  them. 
As  these  mortgages  ran  out,  the  crown  took  possession  of 
the  estates,  and  the  serfs  became  peasants  of  the  crown. 
In  the  fifteen  years  just  past,  the  numbers  of  the  peasants 
of  the  crown  has  increased  by  a  million  and  a  half,  not- 
withstanding the  numerous  emancipations  that  have  taken  ; 
place,  while  the  number  of  serfs  has  increased  but  half  a  j 
million.     The  two   classes  are  now  just  about  equal  in  ; 


STRU(?1:URE  AND  WORKING  OF  RUSSIAN  GOVERNMENT.     377 

numbers ;  but  it  is  estimated  that  fully  balf  of  tbe  serfs 
are  mortgaged  to  the  state  beyond  the  hope  of  redemption. 
These  must  all,  within  a  few  years,  fall  into  the  possession 
of  the  crown. 

"But  will  they  gain  any  thing  by  the  transfer ?  .  "Will 
they  not  still  be  serfs  ?  They  will  gain  much.  Instead  of 
being  subjected  to  the  caprice  of  individuals,  their  condi- 
tion is  fixed  by  general  laws  and  principles,  which,  in  in- 
tention at  least,  operate  in  their  favor.  The  best  evidence 
that  can  be  offered  of  the  superior  condition  of  the  crown 
peasants  is  the  eagerness  of  the  serfs  to  pass  into  their 
number.  It  happens  not  unfrequently  that  when  the  gov- 
ernment ofiers  for  an  estate  a  price  less  than  the  proprie- 
tors are  willing  to  accept,  the  serfs  join  together  and  pay 
the  difference,  in  order  that  they  may  pass  into  the  hands 
of  the  state.  Even  if  the  system  of  emancipation  goes  on 
without  acceleration,  the  serfs  will  be  wholly  absorbed  by 
the- state  within  the  space  of  two  or  three  generations. 

"  The  crown  peasants  are  grouped  into  communities  of 
two  or  three  thousand  souls.  The  use  of  the  soil  belongs 
to  these  communities  as  a  mass,  the  fee-simple  of  it  being 
nominally  vested  in  the  crown,  and  each  peasant  is  charged 
an  annual  ohrok,  or  rent,  of  ten  or  twelve  rubles.  The 
whole  community  is  chargeable  with  the  payment  of  the 
obrok  and  capitation  tax  of  each  of  its  members.  Each 
commune  has  a  sort  of  elective  assembly,  presided  over  by 
the  starishina,  or  mayor,  which  meets  at  regular  periods, 
and  has  charge  of  all  the  internal  affairs  of  the  body.  It 
apportions  to  each  family  its  due  proportion  of  the  land, 
collects  the  taxes,  has  charge  of  the  distribution  of  the 
recruits  among  the  several  families,  punishes  all  petty 
offenses,  and  has  jurisdiction  over  all  disputes  arising 
among  the  members  of  the  commune.  In  a  word,  there 
is  probably  no  body  of  people  who  have  so  entire  a 
control  of  all  their  local  affairs,  with  so  little  interfer- 
ence from  the  superior  authorities,  as  do  the  Russian  peas- 
ants of  the  crown.  It  is  true,  that  in  the  general  affairs 
of  the  empire  they  have  no  voice ;  but  in  all  that  concerns 


378      STRUCTURE  AND  WORKING  OF  RUSSIAN  GOVERNMENT. 

their  every-day  life  they  are  iintrammeled.  The  govern- 
ment  exercises  no  control  over  the  movements  of  the  peas- 
ants. Any  one  of  them  who  wishes  to  leave  the  place  of 
his  birth  can  do  so  by  obtaining  permission  of  the  com- 
mune ;  and  this  can  not  be  refused  if  he  is  able  to  make 
provision  for  the  performance  of  his  communal  duties. 
Provided  with  a  certificate  from  his  commune,  the  whole 
empire  is  open  before  him  without  let  or  hindrance.  It  is 
from  this  class  chiefly  that  the  artisans  who  flock  in  such 
numbers  every  summer  to  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow  are 
drawn.  They  carry  on  the  whole  of  the  extensive  interior 
commerce  of  the  empire,  and  find  ample  space  for  the 
exercise  of  their  wonderful  mechanical  faculty. 

"  Thus,  within  certain  narrow  limits,  the  Russian  crown 
peasant  is  an  absolute  freeman.  He  is,  to  be  sure,  subject 
to  many  extortions  from  rapacious  and  unprincipled  gov- 
ernment employees ;  but  the  occasions  upon  which  he 
comes  in  contact  with  these  are  so  few,  compared  with 
those  in  which  the  serf  of  the  noble  is  exposed  to  the 
exactions  of  his  owner  and  overseers,  that  his  condition 
is  looked  upon  with  desire  by  the  serfs.  This  is  not  the 
hopeless  longing  with  which  the  slave  contemplates  the 
state  of  his  master,  or  the  poor  laborer  of  other  lands 
regards  the  lot  of  those  above  him.  No  impassable  bar- 
rier separates  the  two  classes.  The  serf  knows  that  in  the 
natural  course  of  things  he  or  his  children  will  pass  into 
the  class  of  the  peasants  of  the  crown;  and  the  crown 
peasant  knows  that  it  is  the  Czar  that  has  raised  him 
from  the  condition  of  the  serf."  That  Czar  has  now  liber- 
ated them  all. 

These  statements  will  enable  us  to  form  a  more  accurate 
judgment  concerning  what  is  called  "  Russian  despotism," 
and  all  may  see  who  will  that  a  noble  future  is  already 
opening  before  her. 

Another  powerful  agency  in  liberalizing  the  spirit  of  the 
Russian  government  is  found  in  that  system  of  manufac 
tures  and  commerce  which  she  is  so  assiduously  endeavor- 


STRUCTURE  AND  WORKING  OF  RUSSIAN  GOVERNMENT.      379 

ing  to  establish,  and  wliicli  France  and  England  are  as 
earnestly  striving  to  repress  and  destroy,  and,  thus  far,  are 
making  war  upon  civilization  themselves.  A  barbarous 
despotism  would  be  quite  unlikely,  in  the  first  place,  to 
conceive  such  a  system,  nor  could  it  long  exist  beneath  its 
influence  when  once  in  successful  operation.  *  A  commer- 
cial and  manufacturing  state  becomes  of  necessity  a  highly 
civilized  one,  and  intelligence  and  wealth  sweep  away  at 
last  the  despotic  features  of  the  throne. 

Just  in  proportion  as  the  empire  succeeds  in  its  new 
career  will  the  influence  of  the  people  in  the  government 
increase.  Mcholas  himself  shaped  the  whole  policy  of  his 
reign  toward  the  liberalizing  of  his  institutions  and  the 
elevation  of  his  people,  and  he  died  regretting  that  he  had 
been  unable  to  accomplish  more.  The  emancipation  of 
twenty  millions  of  government  serfs,  which  the  late  em- 
peror had  so  far  accomplished  that  they  considered  them- 
selves virtually  free,  was  a  vast  step  toward  a  complete 
change  in  the  condition  of  the  lower  peasantry,  and  that 
change  has  now  been  nobly  wrought  by  his  noble  son. 

The  following  account  of  the  criminal  system  of  Russia 
was  condensed  by  the  London  Quarterly  Eeview,  from 
"  Haxthausen's  I^otes  on  Hussia,"  and  was  published  be- 
fore the  Crimean  war : 

"  Political  offenders,  who  are  merely  to  be  kept  under 
surveillance,  live,  to  all  appearances,  in  the  ease  of  free- 
dom, at  Wologda ;  those  whose  sins  are  of  a  deeper  dye 
become  exiles — that  is,  go  to  Siberia.  The  exiles  are  re- 
moved to  their  destination  in  convoys  of  one  hundred  or 
two  hundred,  under  charge  of  an  escort ;  and,  until  the 
number  is  complete,  they  are  kept  in  a  comfortable  prison, 
well  lighted  and  warmed.  While  en  route,  they  experience 
much  kindness  from  the  Russian  peasants,  who  send  them 
presents  of  their  best  food  at  every  resting-place ;  and,  in 
large  towns,  the  excess  of  such  contributions  over  what 
they  can  consume  is  so  great  that  it  is  sold  to  buy  them 
better  clothing.    Before  starting,  the  convicts  are  inspected 


380      STRUCTURE  AND  WORKING  OP  RUSSIAN  GOVERNMENT. 

by  a  surgeon,  and  those  who  are  unable  to  walk  are  put 
in  carriages ;  of  the  others,  every  two  men  carry  a  chain 
of  four  or  ^ve  pounds  weight.  They  only  walk  fifteen 
miles  a  day,  and  every  third  day  they  rest.  Wives  are 
allowed,  and  expected,  to  accompany  their  husbands.  The 
journey  lasts  seven  months.  In  the  Asiatic  part  of  it  the 
comforts  are  not  on  the  same  scale,  and  there  is  often  great 
mortality;  between  1823  and  1832  it  amounted  to  about 
one-fifth,  and  the  average  number  of  exiles  was  ten  thou- 
sand a  year.  On  arrival,  the  worst  subjects  are  sent  to  the 
mines ;  and,  in  former  times,  they  hardly  ever  again  saw 
daylight ;  but,  by  the  present  emperor's  regulation,  they  are 
not  kept  underground  more  than  eight  hours  a  day,  and 
on  Sunday  all  have  undisturbed  freedom.  Those  of  a  less 
heinous  stamp  are  employed  on  public  works  for  some 
time,  and  then  allowed  to  become  colonists.  The  least 
serious  offenders  are  at  once  settled  as  colonists  in  South- 
ern Siberia,  and  thenceforth  may  be  considered  as  quite 
free,  except  that  they  can  not  quit  their  location.  In  such 
a  soil  and  climate,  with  industry,  they  may,  within  two  or 
three  years,  find  themselves  established  in  good  houses  of 
their  own,  amid  fields  supplying  every  want  of  a  rising 
family.  It  is  asserted  that  the  young  people  reared  in 
these  abodes  turn  out,  on  the  whole,  of  most  respectable 
character,  and  are  associated  with,  accordingly,  on  the 
kindest  terms  by  neighbors  of  other  classes — especially  the 
peasants  of  native  Siberian  race,  who,  by  the  way,  are  all 
entirely  free,  and  many  of  them  very  rich.  The  only  draw- 
back to  this  paradise  arises  from  the  recent  and  rapidly- 
increasing  production  of  gold,  which  is  said  to  have  already 
done  considerable  harm  to  morals.  Let  us  hope  that  the 
Arcadian  simplicity  of  Van  Diemen's  Land  will  escape  the 
similar  pollution  threatened  it  by  the  vicinity  of  Port 
Philip. 

"  A  model  prison  at  Odessa  is  described  as  greatly  more 
successful  than  any  we  know  of  nearer  home.  It  contains, 
we  are  told,  seven  hundred  criminals,  who  all  work  at  dif- 
ferent tirades,  their  earnings  being  either  applied  to  pro- 


STRUCTURE  AND  WORKING  OP  RUSSIAN  GOVERNMENT.      381 

meting  their  comfort  while  in  durance,  or  given  them  to 
start  in  an  honest  life  with,  on  their  emancipation.  On 
entering  the  prison  they  wear  a  chain ;  but,  on  good  be- 
havior— ^very  generally  within  three  months — they  walk 
the  streets  without  it.  They  are  allowed  to  go  out  to  work 
for  private  individuals,  under  the  direction  of  one  of  the 
best-conducted  prisoners,  and  are  constantly  employed  to 
put  out  fires,  yet  have  scarcely  ever  been  accused  of  steal- 
ing on  such  occasions.  After  ten  years  a  full  pardon  is 
very  often  granted ;  in  fact,  not  one-tenth  of  the  whole 
number  are  detained  beyond  that  period,  and,  on  its  ex- 
piry, many  obtain  small  offices  under  government." 

This  is  abundantly  confirmed  by  the  statements  of  Erman, 
as  the  following  quotation  will  show : 

"  Among  the  various  tales  circulated  in  Western  Europe 
respecting  Siberia,  may  be  reckoned  the  statement  that 
the  exiles  of  this  or  some  other  description  are  obliged  to 
hunt  the  sable  or  other  fur  animals.  But,  in  truth,  it  is 
only  in  the  TJralian  mines  and  those  of  E'erchinsk,  and  in 
certain  manufactories,  that  persons  condemned  to  forced 
labor  are  ever  seen ;  and  several  of  the  rioters  whom  we 
saw  here  in  Beresov  had  already  served  a  year  of  punish- 
ment in  IsTerchinsk.  All  the  rest,  and  the  great  majority 
of  the  Eussian  delinquents,  are  condemned  only  to  settle 
abroad  ;  and,  if  they  belong  to  the  laboring  classes,  to  sup- 
port themselves — yet,  with  this  consolation,  that,  instead 
of  being  serfs  as  heretofore,  they  become  in  all  respects  as 
free  as  the  peasants  of  Western  Europe.  Political  offend- 
ers, however,  who  belong,  in  Russia  as  elsewhere,  gener- 
ally to  the  upper  classes,  or  those  not  used  to  manual  labor, 
are  allowed  to  settle  only  in  the  towns  of  Siberia,  because 
the  support  allowed  them  by  the  government  can  thus  reach 
them  more  easily. 

"  I  have  often  heard  Russians,  who  were  intelligent  and 
reflecting  men,  mention  as  a  paradox  which  hardly  admits 
of  an  explanation,  that  the  peasants  condemned  to  become 


382      STRUCTURE  AND  WORKING  OP  RUSSIAN  GOVERNMENT. 

settlers,  all,  without  exception,  and  in  a  very  short  time, 
change  their  habits,  and  lead  an  exemplary  life ;  yet  it  is 
certain  that  the  sense  of  the  benefit  conferred  on  them  by 
the  gift  of  personal  freedom  is  the  sole  cause  of  this  con- 
version. Banishment,  subservient  to  colonization,  instead 
of  close  imprisonment,  is,  indeed,  an  excellent  feature  in 
the  Russian  code ;  and  though  the  substitution  of  forced 
labor  in  mines  for  the  punishment  of  death  may  be  traced 
back  to  Grecian  examples,  yet  the  improving  of  the  oftend- 
er's  condition,  by  bestowing  on  him  personal  freedom,  is 
an  original  as  well  as  an  admirable  addition  of  a  Russian 
legislator." 

The  authority  of  these  statements  is  not  to  be  disputed, 
and  they  show  conclusively  that  whatever  the  condition  of 
Russia  once  was,  her  criminal  system,  under  the  enlight- 
ened direction  of  Mcholas,  was  so  modified  as  to  compare 
favorably  with  that  of  any  other  state  of  Europe,  and  per- 
haps surpasses  any  in  the  number  which  it  reforms  and 
restores  to  society  and  to  usefulness. 


EUSSIA  AS  SHE  NOW  IS,  AOT)  HBB  PEOBABLB  FUTUEE.     383 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 


BUSSIA  AS  SHE  NOW  IS,  AND  HER  PROBABLE  FUTUBH. 

It  is  hoped  that  Americans  will  not  feel  that  too  much 
time  and  space  are  here  occupied  with  the  character,  re- 
sources, and  policy  of  the  great  ISTorthern  Empire,  and  the 
treatment  which  it  has  received  from  those  "  Allies "  who 
have  lately  undertaken  to  settle  our  American  affairs. 
Russia,  among  all  the  powers  of  earth,  has  remained  true 
to  us  in  our  hour  of  trial.  For  many  years  her  friendship 
for  us  has  been  increasing;  she  felt  deeply,  and  is  still 
grateful  for  American  sympathy  in  her  own  great  struggle 
with  France  and  England ;  and,  because  of  common  perils 
from  a  common  enemy,  and  from  many  points  of  resem- 
blance in  our  national  resources,  capabilities,  and  policy, 
the  Great  Empire  of  the  East  and  the  Great  Republic  of 
the  West  are  very  likely  to  be  not  only  friendly,  but 
allied  powers  in  the  not  remote  future. 

The  causes  which  have  brought  Russia  and  America  into 
sympathy  are  not  events  which  pass  and  leave  no  trace 
behind.  The  drawing  together  of  these  two  nations  is  one 
of  the  mighty  movements  whose  influence  sweeps  over 
centuries.  The  Russian  fleet  anchored  in  our  harbors,  the 
enthusiastic  welcome  given  to  its  oflSlcers,  the  time  of  this 
significant  meeting,  the  joy  with  which  it  thrilled  all  Rus- 
sia, these  things  are  solemn  prophesies  of  the  future. 

Those  who  have  regarded  this  as  an  empty  "  flirtation," 
while  America,  as  they  think,  longs  only  for  an  alliance 


384  RUSSIA  AS  SHE  NOW  IS,  AND  HER  PROBABLE  FUTURE. 

witli  England,  mistake  botli  the  temper  of  our  own  people 
and  the  signs  of  the  times. 

The  United  States  desire  peace  with  England,  if  she  will 
do  us  justice;  but  Americans  have  been  forced,  by  her  own 
conduct,  into  a  position  where  they  regard  her  good  opin- 
ion far  less  than  ever  before. 

They  know  her  power,  and  yet  they  do  not  fear  her,  and 
are  by  no  means,  at  present,  in  a  mood  to  court  her  favor. 
Great  Britain  must  wipe  out  not  only  the  stain,  but  the 
memory  of  her  conduct  in  this  rebellion,  before  the  United 
States  will  seek  her  favor.  But  there  arc --no  wounds  to 
heal  which  Russia  has  made ;  there  is  no  bitterness  in  the 
memories  of  the  past.  The  friendship  first  formed  has 
been  growing  stronger  from  the  beginning,  and  events  indi- 
cate that  it  will  reach  far  into  the  future ;  and,  whether  we 
look  at  Russia  as  she  now  is,  or  consider  what  she  soon  will 
be,  we  may  be  thankful  that  we  may  count  upon  the  friend- 
ship of  such  a  power,  both  in  our  present  conflict  and  in 
the  severe  struggles  which  apparently  await  us  in  almost 
the  immediate  future. 

Russia  stands  now  before  the  world  with  every  element 
from  which  to  construct  the  most  powerful  empire  that  has 
yet  arisen  on  earth,  not  even  excepting  Rome,  for  her  civ- 
ilization springs  from  the  nobler  and  intenser  life  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  and  possessing  already  the  mightiest  political  and 
religious  organizations  of  the  world,  she  is  just  starting 
upon  a  new  career,  with  every  advantage  gained  from  mod- 
ern progress.  She  is  the  head  and  representative  of  the 
great  Sclavonic  race,  which,  even  in  Poland,  would  rally  to 
her,  were  not  the  people  held  back  by  the  aristocracy,  very 
much  as  the  people  of  the  South  have,  by  the  slavehold- 
ers, been  brought  into  a  war  with  the  Government.  She  is 
the  sole  life-power  in  that  Sclavonic  civilization  in  which  is 
bound  up  the  destiny  of  a  hundred  millions  of  people. 

Her  national  Church  is  the  grand  life-center  of  almost  a 
hundred  millions  bearing  the  Christian  name,  and  these  can 
be  brought  to  the  true  Christian  life  only  through  the  in- 
strumentality of  Russia.     They  must  all  be  reheaded  under 


RUSSIA  AS  SHE  NOW  IS,  AND  HER  PROBABLE  FUTURE.  385 

her,  if  tlie  fragments  are  ever  gathered.  Beyond  any  other 
nation,  Russia  is  penetrated  by  the  religious  life.  What- 
ever we  may  think  of  the  spirituality  of  that  religion,  it  is 
the  controlling  power  of  the  State ;  it  is,  indeed,  the  soul 

,•  of  the  political  body.  \ 

'^  The  Czar  is  reverenced,  not  so  much  as  a  political  officer, 
a  mere  emperor,  as  the  religious  head  and  father  of  the 
people.  He  rules  rather  as  the  head  of  the  Church  than  as 
the  governor  of  the  State ;  and  this  fact  alone  may  show 
us  what  measureless  power  there  is  in  a  nation  numbering 
seventy  or  eighty  millions,  bound,  by  religious  enthusiasm, 
to  one  personal  leader. 

Russia  presents,  too,  the  noblest  moral  spectacle  of  mod- 
ern times.  Foremost  among  all  nations,  she,  who  has  been 
denounced  as  the  barbarian  despotism,  steps  forth  the  cham- 
pion of  human  rights,  investing,  at  once,  some  twenty-five 
millions  of  serfs  with  all  the  ennobling  rights  and  responsi- 
bilities of  citizenship,  and  then  changing  an  absolute  mon- 
archy into  a  constitutional  kingdom;  and  it  proves  both 
the  strength  and  the  value  of  the  government,  that  these 
vast  changes  have  been  wrought  without  bloodshed  or  seri- 
ous commotion.  These  two  great  acts  inaugurate  for  Rus- 
sia a  new  era ;  they  prove  that,  in  truly  liberal  ideas,  in 
measures  intended  to  elevate  the  working  people,  she  is  in 
advance  of  every  nation  in  Europe,  not  even  excepting 
England ;  that  a  spirit  pervades  her  like  that  which  is  lib- 
erating our  own  laborers,  and  that  a  new-born  life,  energy, 
and  enterprise  are  quickening  the  whole  mass  of  the  Rus- 
sian nation — a  life  in  character,  activity,  and  aims,  closely 
resembling  our  own. 

The  emancipation  act  and  the  new  constitution  are  the 
sure  prophesies  of  her  magnificent  future.  Russia  and 
America  are  both  passing  through  a  revolution  which  will 
place  the  future  greatness  of  both  on  the  same  basis,  and 
that  an  immovable  one — a  working  population  of  landhold- 
ers. The  change  which  is  being  effected  in  the  South  by 
the  breaking  up  of  the  great  estates,  and  placing  them  in 
the  hands  of  the  laborers,  and  the  operation  of  our  home- 
25 


# 

4 


386  RUSSIA  AS  SHE  NOW  IS,  AND  HER  PROBABLE  FUTURE. 

stead  law,  are  doing  for  America  precisely  what  the  eman- 
cipation of  the  serfs  is  doing  for  Russia.  In  both  nations 
the  workers  will  own  the  land  to  a  far  greater  extent  than 
in  any  other  country  of  the  world,  and  will  make  them 
true  democracies,  whatever  the  name  of  the  government 
may  be. 

The  new  freemen  of  Russia  are  already  purchasing  small 
farms,  all  over  the  empire,  and  the  government  assists  them 
by  loaning  them  money,  and  cherishes,  in  all  ways,  the  new 
national  life.  The  increased  value  of  the  lands  of  the  Rus- 
sian Empire  is  already  beyond  calculation,  and  improve- 
ments are  rapidly  going  forward  on  all  sides.  The  new 
wants  of  the  people  are  giving  a  new  impulse  to  manufac- 
tures and  internal  trade,  steamboats  are  multiplying  on  her 
net- work  of  rivers,  and  the  whole  nation  feels  the  throb  of 
an  intenser  life.  Her  nobles,  who  formerly  spent  their 
time  and  money  abroad,  are  now  living  on  their  estates, 
anxious  to  assist  in  the  general  improvement  of  their 
country. 

Before  emancipation,  such  a  thing  as  a  day-school  was 
scarcely  known  among  the  peasants ;  but  since,  in  the  short 
space  of  two  years,  more  than  eight  thousand  have  been 
established,  and  this  shows  how  quickly  educational  insti- 
tutions of  all  grades  will  be  established  throughout  the 
land.  Their  eagerness  to  learn  is  like  that  of  our  own 
freedmen,  and,  as  there  is  no  prejudice  of  color  or  race  to 
overcome,  the  serfs  being  Russians,  it  is  easy  to  see,  that,  in 
a  short  time,  all  traces  of  former  condition  will  disappear, 
and,  in  every  sense,  the  population  of  Russia  will  be  a 
homogeneous  body,  animated  by  one  national  life.  The 
New  Testament  is  being  circulated  among  the  people  at 
twelve  cents  per  copy,  and  it  is  intended  that  the  religious 
life  of  Russia  shall  keep  pace  with  her  material  develop- 
ment. 

This  robust,  expansive  Sclavonic  life  is  applying  its  en- 
ergies to  a  territory  that,  in  Europe,  stretches  from  the 
Baltic  to  the  Black  Sea,  with  an  eastern  frontier  which  is 
ifloating  on  toward  India,  and  with  a  valley,  on  the  north 


» 


AND  HER  PROBABLE  FUTURE.  387 

of  China,  nearly  equal  to  that  of  the  Mississippi,  opening 
upon  the  Pacific,  and  traversed  by  a  navigable  river  more 
than  two  thousand  miles  long;  a  position  which,  in  spite 
of  "Western  Europe,  will  give  her  a  controlling  influence 
over  China,  Japan,  and  the  whole  East  Indian  Archipelago. 
Her  past  history,  her  present  irrepressible  aspirations,  her 
Asiatic  character,  her  relations  to  the  Greek  Church,  all 
point  steadily  to  the  occupation  of  Constantinople,  the 
removal  of  Mohammedanism  ft'om  the  line  of  her  march, 
and  then,  with  her  navy  on  the  Baltic,  on  the  Euxine  and 
Dardanelles,  and  the  Pacific,  with  her  boundless  resources, 
her  hundred  millions  of  people  elevated  by  free  institutions, 
and  quickened  by  friendly  contact  with  our  American  life, 
with  a  national  Church  coextensive  with  her  territory,  and 
that  Church  giving  already  signs  of  spiritual  resurrection, 
why  should  not  Russia  recover  that  Eastern  empire,  and 
become  the  regenerator  of  Asia  ? 

Such  is  the  nation  which  proposes  to  join  hands  T\dth  our 
Republic,  and  walk  with  us  into  the  nobler  future  which  is 
opening  before  the  nations.  Her  firm  friendship  has  helped 
to  save  us  from  foreign  intervention,  and  common  sympa- 
thies and  common  dangers  may  bind  us  still  more  closely 
hereafter. 


388        ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 


CHAPTER    XXXV. 


ENGLAND— HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  AND  PROSPECTS. 

,        I 

The  statements  which  have  heen  presented,  drawn  from 
sources  with  which  the  mass  of  the  people  are  probahly  not 
familiar,  will  enable  them  to  form  more  accurate  opinions 
than  have  hitherto  prevailed  in  regard  to  the  great  nation 
which  alone,  among  all  European  powers,  is  likely  to  re- 
main our  friend,  and,  perhaps,  become  our  ally  in  the 
stormy  future  upon  which  the  world  is  entering. 

It  is  equally  important  that  Americans  should  be  able  to 
measure  accurately  the  condition,  power,  and  resources  of 
those  who  have  combined  to  hinder  our  progress,  and  crip- 
ple our  power;  who  have  striven,  by  all  means  short  of 
actual  war,  to  make  the  rebellion  a  success,  and  thereby 
ruin  the  Republic  here,  and  the  cause  of  free  institutions  in 
Europe.  We  ought  to  know  what  ability  France  and  Eng- 
land have  for  attack,  in  order  to  compare  with  it  our  own 
power  for  offensive  or  defensive  war.  For  this  purpose  it 
is  proposed,  first,  to  study  the  condition  of  England. 

Great  Britain  must  be  judged,  not  alone  by  her  present 
position  and  power,  but  by  her  elements  of  permanent  pros- 
perity, be  they  few  or  many,  which  may  enable  her  to  main- 
tain her  present  supremacy  in  competition  with  othei 
nations,  and  especially  with  Russia  and  America,  in  the 
new  career  upon  which  these  are  entering  now.  England 
will  probably  find,  when  too  late,  that,  in  attacking  Russia 
and  the  United  States,  she  has  provoked  a  struggle  from 


ENGLAND — ^HBR  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.        389 

-'  which  neither  party  can  recede,  until  it  is  determined 
whether  she,  with  France,  can  dictate  to  the  world ;  and,  if 
she  discovers  that  the  conflict  involves  either  a  change  in 
her  institutions,  or  a  surrender  of  her  national  life,  she 
must  remember  that  the  issue  is  one  which  she  made  up 
and  presented  herself.  It  has  not  been  forced  upon  her 
either  by  Russia  or  America. 

What,  then,  are  the  elements  of  her  power  and  sources 
of  her  life,  and  what  does  her  present  condition  indicate  for 
the  future?  The  first  essential  element  of  enduring  na- 
tional greatness  is  a  home  territory  sufficient  for  the  support 
of  the  population  of  a  first-class  power.  Where  this  is  want- 
ing there  can  not  be  a  great  independent  nation ;  there  can 
not  be  one  mighty  homogeneous  body  of  population,  whose 
life  and  power  of  growth  are  derived  from  a  common 
center,  and  from  which  center  continuous  lines  of  attach- 
ment and  interlacing  bonds  spread  over  the  whole  nation, 
like  the  nerves  and  veins  of  the  living  body.  This  requires 
one  undivided  theater  of  national  growth  and  activity, 
broad  enough  to  bear  up  the  social  and  political  structure. 
There  may  be,  without  these,  a  greatness  derived  from  sep- 
arated colonial  territories,  a  manufacturing  and  commercial 
greatness  and  power,  enduring  or  temporary,  according  to 
circumstances ;  but  the  territory  of  a  nation,  its  extent  and 
quality,  must,  in  the  end,  be  the  measure  of  its  power. 

Of  course,  territory  alone  can  not  insure  national  power ; 
but,  if  one  nation  has  a  domain  which  will  support  a  home 
population  of  twenty-five  millions  only,  and  another  holds 
land  enough  to  maintain  one  hundred  millions,  and  is  equal 
in  all  other  advantages,  the  latter  has  elements  of  power 
four  times  greater  than  the  former,  nor  would  distant  colo- 
nial possessions  make  up  the  deficiency  of  territory  at  home. 

These  colonies,  while  they  can  be  held  simply  as  tributa- 
ries, may  increase  the  wealth  and  power  of  the  home  gov- 
ernment through  its  manufactures  and  commerce;  but,  in 
the  end,  prosperous  colonies  throw  off  the  yoke  of  bondage, 
and  new  nations  spring  up  to  compete  for  the  commerce  of 
the  world. 


390        ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT   CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 


What,  then,  is  the  condition  and  prospect  of  E  agland  in 
regard  to  this  point  ?  What  are  the  foundations  of  her  na- 
tional structure,  and  what  are  her  prospects  in  rivalry  with, 
or  hostility  to,  Eussia  and  America,  for  the  next  quarter  of 
a  century  ? 

England,  Wales,  Ireland,  and  Scotland,  together,  have  a 
territory  of  about  one  hundred  and  twelve  thousand  square 
miles.  This  constitutes  the  whole  home  territory  of  Great 
Britain.  It  is  less  than  that  occupied  by  our  three  States 
of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois,  and  less  than  half  the  size 
of  Texas.  England,  alone,  is  not  quite  as  large  as  the  sin-  > 
gle  State  of  Alabama.  | 

The  arable  land  of  England  is  estimated  at  only  twenty- 
eight  millions  of  acres,  which  is  less  than  the  estimated 
arable  land  in  the  single  State  of  Illinois.  While  the  home 
territory  of  Great  Britain  is  about  one  hundred  and  twelve 
thousand  square  miles,  that  of  the  United  States  is  about 
three  millions  of  square  miles,  all  in  one  body,  and  which, 
by  navigable  rivers,  lakes,  railways,  and  coast-line  naviga- 
tion, can  be  controlled  by  one  people  and  one  central  gov- 
ernment. 

These  numbers  form  the  proper  basis  of  comparison  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  England  which  reach  into  the 
future,  though  they  are  by  no  means  indications  of  their 
present  relative  strength.  But  such  comparisons  will  be 
truthful  guides  in  the  future,  because  the  time  is  not  dis- 
tant when  Great  Britain  will  lose  the  control  of  every  one 
of  her  principal  colonies,  and  our  present  war  is  consolidat- 
ing our  people  into  one  American  nation,  whose  life  is  vig- 
orous enough  to  extend  over  a  continent.  England,  at  no 
very  distant  period,  must  rest  her  power  upon  the  resources 
of  her  home  empire,  competing  as  she  may  with  the  rest 
of  the  world  for  the  trade  of  her  present  colonies. 

England  is  almost  a  miracle  of  energy  and  power ;  she  is 
the  most  wonderful  product,  thus  far,  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion, and  no  American  should  desire  to  diminish  aught  of 
her  proper  glory ;  but,  when  she  proposes  to  interfere  with 
our  private  affairs,  when  she  seems  to  desire  our  ruin,  and 


ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  BITC.        391 

gives  her  sympathies  to  our  bitterest  enemies,  and  forms 
alliances  to  hinder  our  progress,  and  holds  herself  in  a 
threatening  attitude,  it  will  do  us  no  harm  to  remember 
that,  ere  this  century  closes,  she  will  see  here  a  hundred 
millions  of  people,  who  will  be  at  least  her  equal  in  every 
thing  pertaining  either  to  peace  or  war,  and  outnumbering 
her  nearly  three  to  one. 

On  this  territory  of  one  hundred  and  twelve  thousand 
square  miles,  Great  Britain  has  twenty-nine  millions  of 
inhabitants,  averaging,  for  the  whole  surface,  two  hundred 
and  fifty-eight  persons.     It  is  evident,  therefore,  if  we  re- 
gard the  land  as  a  basis,  the  British  Empire  has  reached  the 
limit  of  growth,  and,  indeed,  has  passed  that  limit,  unless 
her  great  estates  are  divided,  for  one-third  of  her  popula- 
tion is,  even  now,  fed  from  foreign  countries.     Her  power 
to  maintain  her  present  rank  among  nations,  and  even  her 
ability  to  keep  her  population  from  starving,  depend  upon 
her  being  able  to  supply  the  markets  of  the  world  with  her 
fabrics,  and  retain  her  position  as  the  chief  factor  of  the 
world's  commerce.     Should  other  nations  succeed  in  com 
peting  with  her  on  this,  her  chosen  field,  her  political 
supremacy  would  at  once  be  stricken  down.     Hence  her 
extreme  anxiety  in  regard  to  the  progress  of  Russia  and 
America,  and  her  attempts  to  put  them  down  by  force,  when  , 
she  fears  that  they  will  not  only  manufacture  for  them-  \ 
selves,  instead  of  buying  from  her,  but  will  become  her   i 
rivals  in  the  great  markets  of  the  world. 

The  London  Quarterly,  for  July,  1861,  thus  sets  forth 
those  fears  which  were  the  real  motives  for  the  attack  on 
Russia,  and  for  the  hostile  attitude  of  England  toward  the 
United  States: 

"  The  policy  which  the  Czar  has  marked  out  for  him- 
self appears  for  the  present  to  be  the  consolidation  of 
his  empire  and  the  encouragement  of  foreign  trade,  as 
forming  the  basis  of  that  maritime  greatness  which  is  a 
traditional  object  of  Russian  ambition.  Whenever  the 
mercantile  and  maritime  development  of  Russia  shall  be 


:- 


1 


392         ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 

rin  any  degree  proportioned  to  its  colossal  empire,  it  is 
impossible  that  such  a  country  should  not  become  an  ob- 
ject of  apprehension  to  all  independent  States. 

"England  has  immense  interests  at  stake  in  the  main- 
tenance of  her  commercial  ascendency  in  the  East ;  and  if 
Russia  "Should  ever  acquire  the  power  to  control  British 
trade,  or  become  a  successful  competitor  for  the  supply  of 
the  principal  markets  of  Asia,  a  heavy  blow  will  have 
been  struck  at  our  political  greatness." 

The  leading  article  in  the  IS'orth  British,  for  May,  1863, 
reveals  very  clearly  what  gigantic  specters  are  terrifying  the 
people  of  England — one  in  the  East  and  the  other  in  the 
West.  The  writer  turns,  first,  to  Russia,  with  intense 
alarm,  with  visions  of  Cossacks  quartered  in  the  capitals 
of  Europe,  but  comforts  himself  with  the  prediction  that 
the  Russian  Empire  can  not  long  be  held  together;  she 
will,  undoubtedly,  he  says,  be  disintegrated,  and  Europe 
will  be  relieved  from  terror. 

He  then  turns  to  the  Republican  specter  of  the  West, 
English  thinkers  have  just  begun  to  get  glimpses  of  the 
real  significance  of  this  war,  and  the  revolution  through 
which  we  are  passing.  They  begin  to  perceive  that  this 
rebellion  forms  the  transition  stage  from  a  Confederacy  of 
States  to  a  true  American  ]^ationality.  They  see  that  the 
people  are  determined  to  form,  now,  one  consolidated  Amer- 
ican I^ation.  This  vision  of  an  American  Kation  has 
frightened  England  from  her  propriety.  This,  above  all 
things,  she  dreads,  and,  to  prevent  it,  she  hastens  with  all 
aid  and  sympathy  to  the  side  of  the  Rebels ;  hastens  to 
send  fleets  with  Enfield  muskets,  rifled  cannon,  and  mans, 
and  arms,  and  sends  forth  piratical  ships,  under  the  Rebel 
flag,  to  plunder  and  burn  our  ships.  An  American  Nation 
controlling  this  American  continent  is  a  thing  not  to  be 
endured. 

The  writer  in  the  North  British  comforts  himself,  and 
quiets  his  fears,  first  of  all,  by  declaring  that  such  a  thing 
can  not  be. 


ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.        393 

"Fully  may  it  be  granted,  and  religiously  may  it  be 
believed,  that  large  purposes  in  the  world's  future  are,  in 
the  divine  intention,  to  be  accomplished  for  and  hy  the 
nations  of  the  ITorth  American  continent.  IN'or  need  the 
boldest  speculations  on  this  ample  field  be  restricted  or 
suppressed.  But  when  this  liberty  of  speculation  has  been 
granted — sobriety  barely  listened  to — ^then  there  comes  in 
a  question  of  momentous  import,  which  may  thus  be 
worded :  Shall  the  destinies  of  the  Il^orth  American  na- 
tions be  accomplished,  and  the  divine  purposes  thereto 
relating  fulfilled,  by  the  means  of  a  one  all-grasping,  all- 
absorbing  empire,  doing  its  ruthless  pleasure  from  the 
Mexican  Gulf  to  the  Arctic  regions — from  the  sea-board  of 
the  Atlantic  to  the  sea-board  of  the  Pacific  Ocean? — shall 
it,  indeed,  be  thus  that  the  same  Hand  which  long  ago  scat- 
tered the  nations  from  the  plains  of  Babylon  and  l^ineveh, 
will  be  seen  favoring  an  enterprise  of  the  same  quality,  in 
these  last  times  ?  A  negative  answer  to  a  question  of  this 
sort  must,  we  think,  commend  itself  to  all  calm  minds,  on 
whatever  grounds  it  is  argued — whether  the  religious  as- 
pect of  the  question  be  regarded,  or  that  of  political  or 
philosophical  speculation.  It  shall  not  be  that  the  desti- 
nies of  the  nations  of  the  JN'orth  American  continent  will 
be  worked  out  under  the  administrative  hand  of  a  Nebu- 
chadnezzar." 

He  then  goes  on,  prophetically,  to  declare  "  the  inevit- 
able and  not  remote  disintegration  of  the  hitherto  United 
States."  Not  quite  satisfied  that  he  has  laid  this  specter 
yet,  he  proceeds  to  say :  "  It  is  nothing  but  a  dream,  after 
all.  We  might  stop  short  of  formal  prediction,  and  might 
affirm,  on  the  premises  given  us,  that  this  gigantic  North 
American  Empire  which  haunts  the  dreams  of  loyal  Amer- 
icans is  a  dream,  and  can  never  be  a  reality." 

He  then  kindly  invites  us  to  "  disintegrate "  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  world,  and  England  in  particular,  and  intimates 
that,  if  we  do  not,  God  will  probably  "  come  down  "  and  de- 
stroy us,  as  he  overthrew  Babel,  the  city  and  tower  of  old. 


394        ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 

"Disintegration,  gracefully  accepted,  timely  submitted 
to,  and  wisely  turned  to  account,  is  the  call  of  Providence 
audibly  addressed  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  at 
this  moment.  We  say  it  is  the  call  of  Providence;  and 
this  phrase  brings  with  it  a  train  of  thought  which  we  do 
not  propose  to  pursue;  or  thus  far  only  to  follow  it.  On 
all  grounds  of  secular  calculation,  the  gorgeous  phantom 
of  an  empire,  stretched  from  ocean  to  ocean,  which  now 
rules  the  American  mind  as  a  frenzy,  is,  as  we  think,  de- 
monstrably an  absurdity :  no  such  mad  scheme  shall  ever 
be  realized.  But  turn  now  to  another  side  of  the  subject. 
If  at  all  the  ways  of  God  toward  the  human  family,  so  far 
as  these  are  known  to  history,  may  be  understood  and 
interpreted — and  if  there  be  a  visible  overruling  of  human 
affairs — this  intervention  of  Heaven,  this  '  coming  down  of 
the  Lord  to  see  the  city  and  the  tower,'  has  been  repeated 
from  age  to  age — in  Asia,  in  Europe — in  the  most  remote 
times,  in  times  quite  recent;  and  always  it  has  occurred 
at  moments  when  some  vast  conception  of  boundless  em- 
pire and  irresistible  despotism  has  been  proclaimed,  and 
boasted  of,  and  has  seemed  near  to  be  realized.  At  such 
critical  moments  a  voice  from  on  high  has  been  heard,  '  It 
shall  not  be.'  The  instances  need  not  here  be  named ;  but, 
among  all  these  instances,  not  one  can  be  mentioned  that 
carries  upon  its  front,  as  this  latest  instance  does,  the  char- 
acter of  a  national  delirium." 

These  English  terrors,  these  fits  of  shivering  apprehen- 
sion at  the  growth  of  Russia  and  America,  afford  a  com- 
pletely satisfactory  clue  to  the  meaning  of  the  Alliance, 
the  invasion  of  the  Crimea,  and  the  present  hostility  to 
the  United  States — the  hitherto  United  States,  as  the  North 
Brltish  delights  to  call  us. 

.     These  things  show  at  once  the  fears  and  perils  of  Eng- 
land.    She  knows  that,  if  Russia  and  America  become 
great  manufacturing  nations,  with  a  commercial  marine 
and  navy  proportioned  to  their  power  in  other  respects, 
her  own  supremacy  will  be  gone.     She  will  be  tempted  to 


ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT   CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.        395 

make  desperate  efforts  before  she  will  yield  her  present 
place  of  pride,  and  hence  our  own  continual  danger.  She 
will  watch  for  our  overthrow.  She  will  ruin  us  if  she  can. 
Let  us,  then,  turn  again  to  the  study  of  her  condition  and 
resources. 

Eussia  and  America  are  both  pursuing  a  true  democratic 
policy  in  regard  to  their  lands.  They  are  putting  them, 
as  rapidly  as  possible,  into  the  hands  of  the  people.  The 
Russian  freedmen  are  rapidly  buying  them  homes,  the  gov- 
ernment loaning  them  money  for  the  purpose,  while  our 
homestead  law  gives  every  man  who  wishes  it  a  farm. 
America  and  Russia  are  being  occupied  by  a  land-owning 
yeomanry,  the  true  basis  of  national  power,  stability,  and 
growth.  England  is  pursuing  the  exactly  opposite  policy. 
She  is  depriving  her  people  everywhere  of  land,  and  forc- 
ing them  downward  to  the  condition  of  serfs,  from  which 
her  agricultural  laborers  are,  even  now,  but  a  step  removed. 

Alison,  writing  thirty-one  years  ago,  says  there  were 
then  four  millions  of  land  proprietors  in  France,  while 
there  were  not  three  hundred  thousand  in  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland.  In  France,  he  says,  "  the  proprietors  are  as 
numerous  as  the  other  members  of  the  State ;  in  England 
they  hardly  amount  to  one-tenth  part  of  their  number." 

This  was  thirty-one  years  ago.  Investigations  made 
since,  show  that  even  this  estimate  of  Mr.  Alison  is  much 
too  high. 

In  the  Rev.  H.  Worsley's  Essay  on  Juvenile  Depravity, 
quoted  by  Kay  in  his  Social  Condition  of  the  English 
People,  it  is  stated,  that  all  the  lands  of  England  are  in 
the  hands  of  thirty-two  thousand  proprietors.  This  one 
amazing  fact,  all  the  lands  of  England  in  the  hands  of" 
only  thirty-two  thousand  men,  is  quite  sufficient  to  account 
for  the  perfect  sympathy  between  the  English  aristocracy 
and  the  Southern  slaveholders,  and  also  for  the  shocking 
condition  of  the  English  laborers,  as  described  by  Mr. 
Kay.  England,  alone,  contains  some  eighteen  millions  of 
people,  only  thirty-two  thousand  of  whom  own  a  foot  of 
land;  and  the  destructive  process  of  diminishing  the  num- 


396         ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT   CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 

"ber  of  estates,  of  bringing  the  land  into  still  fewer  hands, 
is  yet  going  swiftly  forward. 

The  English  system,  then,  is  precisely  that  of  the  slave- 
holding  South,  which  brings  all  the  lands,  and  all  the  other 
wealth  of  the  country,  into  the  hands  of  a  few,  and  re- 
duces the  laborers  to  slaves,  or  a  condition  but  little  better 
than  slavery,  even  in  England,  as  her  own  writers  have 
fully  shown. 

The  Edinburgh  Review,  for  January,  1860,  in  an  article 
on  British  Taxation,  states,  that  at  least  three-fourths  of 
the  population  of  the  United  Kingdom  belong  to  the 
working  classes ;  that  is,  to  those  who  live  by  wages.  By 
working  classes  in  England  is  not  meant  those  who  are 
working,  as  in  America,  on  their  own  farms,  but  who  are 
hired  in  some  form  to  capital — who  live  by  wages. 

The  present  condition  of  these  laborers,  the  people  of 
England,  is  set  forth  by  Joseph  Kay,  Esq.,  who  was  com- 
missioned by  the  Senate  of  Cambridge  University,  Eng- 
land, to  travel  through  "Western  Europe,  to  examine  the 
comparative  social  condition  of  the  poorer  classes  of  the 
different  countries. 

His  chapters  on  England  have  lately  been  published  by 
Harper  &  Brothers,  and  his  statements  will  show  us  the 
condition  of  the  people  of  England,  and  from  this  it  is 
easy  to  .understand  both  the  strength  and  the  weakness  of 
Great  Britain,  and  know  the  real  nature  of  that  haughty 
power  whose  hostility  we  are  compelled  to  meet.  Of  her 
twenty-nine  millions  of  inhabitants,  nearly  twenty-two 
millions  are  hired  laborers,  and  one  appointed  to  investi- 
gate the  subject  has  given  us  the  results  of  his  inquiry. 

The  first  facts  relate  to  the  rapid  decrease  of  small 
farms,  the  increase  of  the  large  estates,  and  the  effect 
which  this  produces  upon  the  laboring  classes.  Mr.  Kay 
says: 

"  I  was  in  "Westmoreland  for  some  time,  during  the  au- 
tumn of  1849,  and  I  took  great  pains  to  discover  the 
present  condition  of  the  last  survivors  of  these  small  pro- 


ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.         397 

prietors.  I  can  not  describe  it  better  than  by  giving  the 
words  of  a  gentleman  of  great  intelligence  and  of  con- 
servative principles,  who  is  engaged  in  the  management 
of  some  of  the  largest  estates  in  Westmoreland  and  Cum- 
berland. He  resides  in  that  part  of  the  country,  and  is 
interested  in  opposing  the  system  of  peasant  proprietors. 
There  are  obvious  reasons  why  I  can  not  mention  this 
gentleman's  name.     He  said  to  me : 

*'  *  The  greater  proprietors  in  this  part  of  the  country 
are  buying  up  all  the  land  they  can  get  hold  of,  and  in- 
cluding it  in  their  settlements.  Whenever  one  of  the 
small  estates  is  put  up  for  sale,  the  great  proprietors  out- 
bid the  peasants,  and  purchase  it  at  all  costs.  The  conse- 
quence is,  that,  for  some  time  past,  the  number  of  the  small 
estates  held  by  the  peasants  has  been  rapidly  diminishing 
in  all  parts  of  the  country.  In  a  short  time  none  of  them 
will  remain,  but  all  will  be  merged  in  the  great  estates. 
While  this  has  been  going  on,  the  great  landowners  have 
been  also  increasing  very  considerably  the  size  of  the  farms. 
The  smaller  farms  have  been  united,  in  order  to  form  great 
farms  out  of  them.  So  that,  not  only  is  it  becoming  more 
and  more  difficult  every  day  for  a  peasant  to  huy  land  in 
this  part  of  the  country,  but  it  is  also  gradually  becoming 
impossible  for  him  to  obtain  even  a  leasehold  farm.  The 
consequence  is,  that  the  peasant's  position,  instead  of  be- 
ing what  it  once  was,  one  of  hope,  is  gradually  becommg 
one  of  despair.  Unless  a  peasant  emigrates,  there  is  now 
no  chance  for  him.  It  is  impossible  for  him  to  rise  above 
the  peasant  class. 

"  *  All  this  I  believe  to  be  a  great  evil.  I  have  lived  all 
my  life  among  these  people,  and  I  believe  that  the  old 
system  of  small  estates  was  one  which  did  the  greatest  pos- 
sible good  to  the  peasants.  It  stimulated  them  to  exertion, 
self-denial,  and  sobriety,  by  ailbrding  them  a  chance  of 
obtaining  a  farm  of  their  own ;  and,  when  they  had  ob- 
tained one,  it  made  them  interested  in  the  careful  cultiva- 
tion of  the  soil,  in  the  preservation  of  public  order,  and 
in  the  general  prosperity  of  the  country. 


398         ENGLAND — HER   PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 

"  *  Besides  all  this,  tlie  situation  and  duties  of  a  small 
landowner  were  in  themselves  an  excellent  education  to 
the  small  proprietor.  He  had  many  things  to  do  and 
think  of,  with  reference  to  county  rates,  poor  rates,  police, 
markets,  agriculture,  the  effects  ofc  national  proceedings  on 
prices  and  on  taxation,  and  the  seasons.  All  this  was  as 
interesting  to  the  peasants,  and  as  improving  to  them,  as 
it  is  to  our  country  gentlemen,  and  it  made  up,  in  great 
measure,  for  the  want  of  good  schools  and  good  instruc- 
tion. But  all  the  effect  of  this  education  of  circumstance 
is  now  heing  done  away.  The  situation  of  the  peasant  is 
becoming  one  void  of  hope,  and  of  all  improving  inj&u- 
ences  whatever.' 

"  As  the  Rev.  Henry  Worsley  says :  *  The  laborer's  hope 
of  rising  in  the  world  is  a  forlorn  one.  There  is  no  grad- 
uated ascent  up  which  the  hardy  aspirant  may  toil  step  by 
step  with  patient  drudgery.  Several  rounds  in  the  ladder 
are  broken  away  and  gone.  A  farm  of  some  hundred 
acres,  requiring  for  their  due  cultivation  a  large  capital, 
would  be  a  day-dream  too  gaudy  ever  to  mix  itself  with 
the  visions  of  the  most  ambitious  laborer,  earning,  on  an 
average,  probably  less  than  nine  shillings  a  week.  The 
agricultural  workman's  horizon  is  bounded  by  the  high 
red-brick  walls  of  the  union-house :  his  virtual  marriage 
settlement  can  only  point  to  such  a  refuge  if  troubles 
arise :  his  old  age  may  there  have  to  seek  it«  last  shelter.'* 

"  What  is  the  effect  of  all  this  ?  Why,  that  the  millions 
in  England  and  Wales  fancy  that  they  have  nothing  to 
lose  and  every  thing  to  gain  by  political  changes,  and  that, 
instead  of  our  institutions  being  based  upon  the  conserva- 
tism of  the  masses,  they  are  only  based  upon  the  conserv- 
atism of  the  few.  So  that  we  have  really  much  more 
reason  than  any  other  country  to  dread  the  growth  of 
democracy. 

"  Besides  the  depressing  and  demoralizing  effect  of  our 
system  of  monopoly  of  land  upon  the  peasants,  another 

♦  Essay  on  Juvenile  Depravity,  p.  54. 


ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT   CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.        399 

great  evil  wliicli  results  from  our  English  system  of  great 
and  few  farms,  and  great  and  few  estates,  is,  that  it  drives 
vast  numbers  of  the  young  peasants,  and  of  the  younger 
sons  of  farmers,  into  the  manufacturing  towns,  and,  by 
overstocking  their  labor  markets,  renders  it  more  and  more 
difficult  every  year  for  the  small  shopkeepers  and  labor- 
ers of  these  towns  to  make  a  livelihood  amid  the  .ever- 
increasing  competition  around  them. 

"  Let  us  look  this  evil  more  fully  in  the  face.  An  act- 
ive and  enterprising  son  of  a  farmer  sees  that  there  is  no 
chance  of  his  ever  getting  a  farm  in  his  native  parish,  or 
of  his  ever  purchasing  or  even  renting  a  small  plot  of 
land,  or  of  his  ever  rising  above  the  rank  of  a  farm  la- 
borer, earning  eight  or  nine  shillings  a  week.  The  only 
opening  left  for  such  a  young  man,  if  he  would  climb 
•  above  the  lowest  rank  in  the  social  scale — ^the  peasant's 
position — is,  either  to  go  and  seek  his  fortune  in  one  of 
our  colonies,  or  in  one  of  our  towns.  There  are  many 
such  young  men,  who  can  not  persuade-  themselves  to 
break  off  the  ties  of  home  and  kindred,  and  to  leave  their 
native  country,  but  who  feel  compelled  to  leave  their  na- 
tive villages.  All  such  crowd  to  the  great  manufacturing 
towns  of  England.  The  peasants  go,  to  seek  labor  as 
operatives  or  artisans ;  the  sons  of  the  farmers  go,  to  en- 
deavor to  establish  shops  or  taverns.  What  is  the  result? 
The  labor  market  in  the  manufacturing  towns  is  con- 
stantly overstocked;  the  laborers  and  shopkeepers  find 
new  and  eager  competitors  constantly  added  to  the  list; 
competition  in  the  towns  is  rendered  unnaturally  intense, 
profits  and  wages  are  both  unnaturally  reduced ;  the  town 
work-houses  and  the  town  jails  are  crowded  with  inmates; 
the  inhabitants  are  overburdened  with  rates,  and  the  towns 
ewarm  with  paupers  and  misery. 

"  I  know  not  what  others  may  thinlc,  but  to  me  it  is  a 
sad  and  grievous  spectacle,  to  see  the  enormous  amount 
of  vice  and  degraded  misery  which  our  towns  exhibit,  and 
then  to  think  that  we  are  doing  all  we  can  to  foster  and 
stimulate  the  growth  and  extension  of  this  state  of  things 


400         ENGLAND — HER   PRESENT   CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 

by  that  system  of  laws  which  drives  so  many  of  the  peas- 
ants of  both  England  and  Ireland  to  the  towns,  and  in- 
creases the  already  vast  mass  of  misery  by  so  doing. 

"  I  speak  with  deliberation  when  I  say,  that  I  know  no 
spectacle  so  degraded,  and,  if  I  may  be  allowed  to  use  a 
strong  word,  so  horrible,  as  the  back  streets  and  suburbs 
of  English  and  Irish  towns,  with  their  filthy  inhabitants ; 
with  their  crowds  of  half-clad,  filthy,  and  degraded  chil- 
dren, playing  in  the  dirty  kennels;  with  their  numerous 
gin-palaces,  filled  with  people,  whose  hands  and  faces  show 
how  their  flesh  is,  so  to  speak,  impregnated  with  spirit- 
uous liquors — the  only  solaces,  poor  creatures,  that  they 
have ! — and  with  poor  young  girls,  whom  a  want  of  re- 
ligious training  in  their  infancy,  and  misery,  has  driven  to 
the  most  degraded  and  pitiful  of  all  pursuits." 

The  first  result  of  such  a  state  of  afiTairs  is  sufficiently 
startling.  In  England  and  Wales  alone,  exclusive  of  Ire- 
land, there  are  two  millions  of  paupers,  and  this  number  is 
continually  increasing.  The  number  of  paupers  in  England 
and  "Wales  is  about  one  in  eight  of  the  whole  population. 

Of  the  whole  population  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
about  three  millions  are  said  to  be  paupers,  or  on  the  verge 
of  pauperism.  Certainly,  it  would  seem  that  a  country 
whose  political  system  is  reducing  its  laborers  to  the  con- 
dition of  serfs  and  paupers,  can  not  have  a  perpetual  lease 
of  national  existence  in  its  present  form.  Its  prosperity 
rests  not  on  the  welfare  of  the  masses,  but  in  the  wealth 
of  a  class,  whose  riches  have  been  wrung  from  the  earn- 
ings of  the  many. 

The  reader  should  bear  in  mind  that  the  statements 
which  follow  are  the  results  of  a  widely-extended  official 
inquiry,  and  that  they  relate  not  to  isolated  cases,  but  to 
whole  classes  of  laborers,  and  in  all  parts  of  the  country, 
and  presented,  as  they  have  been,  from  a  great  number  of 
independent  witnesses,  may  be  received  as  representing  cor- 
rectly the  general  condition  of  the  working  classes  of  Great 
Britain ;  and  it  is  hoped  that  the  laboring  people  of  this 


ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.         401 

country  will  earnestly  study  this  subject,  and  ponder  these 
facts,  and  thus  learn  to  value  more  than  ever  the  free  in- 
stitutions of  our  land,  by  which  those  who  produce  the 
wealth  of  the  state  are  duly  rewarded,  instructed,  and  ele- 
vated, instead  of  being  forced  down  by  an  aristocracy,  as 
in  England,  to  the  condition  of  paupers  and  serfs,  while 
bearing  the  empty  name  of  freemen.  The  first  question 
which  it  is  proposed  to  consider  is, 

Are  THE  Laborers  of  Great  Britain  Educated? 

This  question  is  thus  answered,  by  the  latest  investiga- 
tions of  Englishmen  themselves,  in  statements  copied  from 
Mr.  Kay's  Report,  who  gives  the  authorities  upon  which 
he  relies. 

» 

"I  will  give  a  short  summary  of  the  present  state  of 
primary  education  in  England  and  Wales,  as  collected  from 
the  reports  of  Her  Majesty's  Inspectors,  of  the  Commission- 
ers of  Inquiry  in  Wales,  of  the  ISTational  Society,  of  the  Sta- 
tistical Society,  and  of  the  city  mission;  from  Mr.  Red- 
grave's reports  from  some  very  able  articles  in  the  ISTorth 
British  Review,  and  from  numerous  personal  inquiries  in 
various  parts  of  England  and  Wales : 

"  1.  It  has  been  calculated  that  there  are,  at  the  present 
day,  in  England  and  Wales,  nearly  8,000,000  persons  who 
can  not  read  and  write. 

"  2.  Of  all  the  children  in  England  and  Wales,  between 
the  ages  of  ^nq  and  fourteen,  more  than  the  half  are  not 
attending  any  school. 

"3.  Even  of  the  class  of  the  farmers,  there  are  great 
numbers  who  can  not  read  and  write. 

"  4.  Even  of  those  children  of  the  poor  who  have  received 
some  instruction,  very  few  know  any  thing  of  geography, 
history,  science,  music,  or  drawing.  Their  instruction  in 
the  village  schools  has  hitherto  generally  consisted  of  noth- 
ing more  than  a  little  practice  in  reading,  writing,  and 
Scripture  history. 
26 


402        ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 

"  5.  Of  the  teacliers  wlio  are  officiating  in  many  of  the 
village  schools,  there  are  many  who  can  not  read  and 
write  correctly,  and  who  know  very  little  of  the  Bible, 
which  they  profess  to  explain  to  their  scholars. 

"  6.  A  very  great  part  of  our  present  village  and  town- 
schools  are  managed  by  poor  and  miserably-instructed 
dames,  who  thus  seek  to  make  a  livelihood,  and  who  lit- 
erally do  no  good  to  the  children,  except  it  be  keeping 
them,  for  a  certain  number  of  hours  in  the  day,  out  of 
the  dirt  and  out  of  worse  society. 

"  7.  Many  of  these  dame-schools  are  so  wretchedly  man- 
aged, as  to  do  the  children  a  very  great  deal  more  harm 
than  good — by  uniting  miserable  associations  with  the 
sacred  writings,  and  with  the  subjects  of  the  wretched 
instruction  given  in  these  schools. 

"  8.  Yery  many  of  our  town-schools  are  held  in  small 
and  unventilated  cellars  or  garrets,  where  the  health  of  the 
children  is  seriously  impaired. 

"  9.  If  we  except  only  the  worst  part  of  the  dame-schools, 
we  have  not  even  then  one-half  as  many  school-buildings 
as  we  require  for  the  present  numbers  of  our  population. 

"10.  By  far  the  greatest  part  of  our  school-buildings 
have  only  one  room,  in  which  all  the  classes  are  instructed 
together,  in  the  midst  of  noise  and  foul  air. 

"11.  Many  of  our  present  school-rooms  have  no  forms 
and  no  parallel  desks — ^both  of  which  are  to  be  found  in 
every  school-room  throughout  Western  Europe;  and  in 
all  such  schools  the  children  are  kept  standing  the  whole 
day. 

"  12.  Yery  few  of  our  school-rooms  are  properly  supplied 
with  maps,  books,  or  school-apparatus. 

"  13.  The  majority  of  our  town-schools  have  no  play- 
grounds; and,  in  all  these  cases,  the  children  are  turned 
out  into  the  streets  during  the  hours  of  recreation. 

"  14.  Scarcely  any  schools  throughout  the  country  have 
more  than  two  class-rooms ;  the  classification  of  the  chil- 
dren is,  therefore,  very  deficient,  and  the  instruction  is 
thereby  much  impaired. 


I 


ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.         403 

"15.  Yerj  few  scliools  have  more  than  one  teacher. 

"  16.  Great  numbers  of  parishes  and  districts  throughout 
England  and  Wales  have  no  school-room  at  all,  and  no 
place  in  which  their  children  can  be  instructed. 

"  17.  Of  these  latter  districts,  many  are  too  poor  or  too 
careless  to  raise  any  thing  toward  the  erection  of  school- 
buildings;  and  in  none  of  these  cases  does  the  Commit- 
tee of  Council  give  any  assistance. 

"  18.  In  many  other  districts,  the  inhabitants  are  so  di- 
vided in  religious  opinions,  that  they  find  it  impossible  to 
act  in  concert  in  providing  for  the  education  of  their  chil- 
dren ;  and  in  these  cases  the  Committee  of  Council  renders 
no  assistance. 

"  19.  In  most  of  our  schools  it  is  necessary,  in  order  to 
provide  salaries  for  the  teacher  and  funds  for  the  support 
of  the  school,  to  charge  from  2d.  to  4:d.  a  week  per  head  for 
the  instruction  of  scholars.  This  absolutely  excludes  the 
children  of  all  paupers,  and  of  all  poor  persons,  who  can 
not  afford  to  pay  so  much  out  of  their  small  earnings; 
while,  throughout  the  greatest  part  of  Western  Europe, 
the  education  afforded  in  the  primary  schools  is  quite  gra- 
tuitous. 

"20.  There  is  no  public  provision  for  the  proper  pay- 
ment and  maintenance  of  our  teachers,  and  these  latter  are, 
therefore,  generally  placed  in  so  very  humiliating  and  de- 
!-pendent  a  position,  as  in  many  cases  virtually  to  prevent 
my  man  of  ability  and  education  from  accepting  such  an 

ice. 

"  21.  A  great  part  of  our  village  teachers  are  only  poor, 

[educated  women,  or  poor  men  who  are  not  fit  for  any 
►ther  office  or  employment,  and  who  are  themselves  miser- 
ibly  educated. 

"22.  In  proportion  to  our  population,  we  have  scarcely 
►ne-fourth  part  as  many  colleges  for  the  instruction  of 
jachers  as  any  of  the  countries  of  Western  Europe,  and 
lot  one-fourth  part  as  many  as  are  necessary  for  the  edu- 
cation of  a  sufficient  number  of  teachers  for  our  poor. 

"23.  In  nearly  all  the  few  colleges  we  have  established 


404        ENGLAND — HER   PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 

for  the  instruction  of  teachers,  the  education  is  very  lim- 
ited and  meager  in  its  character,  as  these  colleges  depend 
upon  voluntary  aid,  and  can  not  afford  to  give  the  students 
more  than  a  year's  or  eighteen  months'  training;  while 
throughout  Western  Europe  the  teachers  receive  three  years^ 
training  in  the  teachers'  colleges  at  the  expense  of  the 
government. 

"  24.  The  colleges  we  have  established  are  so  poor  that 
they  can  not  afford  to  support  nearly  so  large  and  com- 
plete a  staff"  of  teachers  and  professors  as  are  to  be  found 
in  almost  all  the  teachers'  colleges  throughout  Western 
Europe. 

"  25.  A  great  part  of  our  schools  and  teachers  are  never 
visited  by  any  public  inspector,  or  by  any  private  person, 
or  committee  of  persons,  from  the  year's  beginning  to  the 
year's  end.  In  many  of  these  cases,  bad  teachers  are  left 
to  do  great  injury  to  their  scholars,  unchecked  and  unheard 
of;  and,  in  many  other  cases,  good  and  able  teachers  are 
left,  without  encouragement  or  advice,  to  labor  on — un- 
known, disheartened,  and  alone. 

"  26.  In  most  of  our  schools,  owing  to  the  teacher  either 
not  having  been  trained  at  all,  or  not  having  been  edu- 
cated for  a  long  enough  time  in  a  college,  the  methods  of 
teaching  are  miserable  and  ridiculous.  The  noise  in  the 
school-rooms  is  often  so  great  that  it  is  with  difficulty  that 
any  individual  can  make  himself  heard.  The  children  are 
often  kept  standing  the  greater  part  of  the  day,  and  are 
wearied  beyond  endurance,  so  that  the  lessons,  and  all  the 
associations  connected  with  the  subjects  of  instruction,  are 
rendered  hateful  ever  afterward.  The  highest  religious 
subjects  are  thus  often  made  odious  to  the  children,  who, 
during  their  after  life,  avoid  as  much  as  possible  recurring 
to  what  awakens  so  many  disagreeable  recollections.  In 
most  of  our  schools  there  is  little  or  no  attempt  to  inter- 
est the  children  in  their  studies,  or  to  teach  them  to  think 
or  reason.  The  instruction  is  mere  parrot  work.  They 
are  taught  by  rote,  and  forget  again  almost  as  soon  as  they 
have  left  the  school. 


ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.         405 

"  27.  Great  numbers  of  the  scliool-buildings  in  the  more 
remote  country  districts  are  of  the  most  wretched  and  mis- 
erable character. 

"  An  idea  of  some  of  these  may  be  formed  from  the  fol- 
lowing descriptions,  selected  from  the  able  report  of  Mr. 
Lingen  on  the  state  of  education  in  South  Wales,  pub- 
lished in  1848.  These  are  fair  specimens  of  schools  which 
may  be  found  throughout  England  and  Wales. 

"  Mr.  Lingen  says :  There  was  no  room  for  making  fur- 
niture and  apparatus  separate  considerations  in  most  of 
the  schools  throughout  the  remoter  districts,  exhibiting,  as 
they  did,  every  form  of  squalid  destitution.  I  subjoin  a 
few  instances  out  of  many  others  perhaps  more  striking. 

"  Of  one  school,  he  says  : 

"'The  furniture  consisted  of  one  desk  for  the  master, 
two  longer  ones  for  the  pupils,  and  a  few  benches — all  in 
a  wretched  state  of  repair.  The  room  was  not  ceiled.  In 
one  corner  was  a  heap  of  spars,  the  property  of  the  master, 
for  the  purpose  of  thatching  his  house;  in  another  place 
was  a  heap  of  culm,  emptied  out  on  the  floor.  The  floor 
was  boarded,  but  all  the  middle  of  it  was  in  holes.' 

"  Of  another,  he  says : 

"*The  school  was  held  in  a  miserable  room  over  the 
stable ;  it  was  lighted  by  two  small  glazed  windows,  and 
was  very  low;  in  one  corner  were  a  broken  bench,  some 
Backs,  and  a  worn-out  basket ;  another  corner  was  boarded 
ofl:*  for  storing  tiles  and  mortar  belonging  to  the  chapel. 
The  furniture  consisted  of  three  small  square  tables — one 
for  the  master,  two  larger  ones  for  the  children — and  a  few 
benches — all  in  a  wretched  state  of  repair.  There  were 
several  panes  of  glass  broken  in  the  windows ;  in  one  place 
paper  served  the  place  of  glass,  and  in  another  a  slate,  to 
keep  out  wind  and  rain ;  the  door  was  also  in  a  very  di- 
lapidated condition.  On  the  beams  which  crossed  the  room 
were  a  ladder  and  two  large  poles.' 

"  Of  another,  he  says : 

" '  The  school  was  held  in  a  room  built  in  a  corner  of 

e  churchyard;  it  was  an  open-roofed  room;  the  floor  was 


WK 

t 


406        ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 


of  the  bare  earth,  and  very  uneven;  the  room  was  lighted 
by  two  small  glazed  windows,  one-third  of  each  of  which 
was  patched  up  with  boards.  The  furniture  consisted  of  a 
small  square  table  for  the  master,  one  square  table  for  the 
pupils,  and  seven  or  eight  benches,  some  of  which  were  in 
good  repair,  and  others  very  bad.  The  biers  belonging  to 
the  church  were  placed  on  the  beams  which  ran  across  the 
room.  At  one  end  of  the  room  was  a  heap  of  coal  and  | 
some  rubbish  and  a  worn-out  basket,  and  on  one  side  was 
a  new  door  leaning  against  the  wall,  and  intended  for  the 
stable  belonging  to  the  church.  The  door  of  the  school- 
room was  in  a  very  bad  condition,  there  being  large  holes 
In  it,  through  which  cold  currents  of  air  were  continually 
flowing.' 

"  Of  another,  he  says : 

" '  This  school  is  held  in  a  dark,  miserable  den  under  the 
town-hall ;  the  furniture  comprised  only  a  few  old  benches 
and  tables ;  in  the  corner  was  a  litter  of  broken  cups  and 
a  bottle ;  there  was  a  starling  of  the  master's  loose  in  the 
room  which,  by  flying  about,  greatly  disturbed  the  chil- 
dren during  my  visit.' 

"  Of  another,  he  says  : 

"  '  In  one  corner  was  a  heap  of  culm,  in  another  a  bench 
or  two  piled  against  the  wall,  and  various  litter;  at  the 
bottom  of  the  room  lay  a  gravestone,  on  which  the  master 
had  been  chalking  the  letters  which  the  village  mason  was 
to  cut  as  an  inscription ;  on  the  table  lay  a  jug  and  pipe.' 

"  I  might  quote  endless  instances  to  prove  the  miserable 
character  and  ill  effects  of  the  present  school-buildings  in 
Carmarthenshire  and  Pembrokeshire.  Indeed,  report  after 
report  is  too  often  only  a  wearisome  repetition  of  such  par- 
ticulars. It  will  suffice  for  me  to  subjoin  a  few  instances, 
by  way  of  illustration,  taking  them  almost  at  hazard. 

Of  another  school,  he  says : 

" '  The  school  was  held  in  a  room,  part  of  a  dwelling 
house ;  the  room  was  so  small  that  a  great  many  of  the 
scholars  were  obliged  to  go  into  the  room  above,  whicl 
they  reached  by  means  of  a  ladder  through  a  hole  in 


ENGLAND — HER   PRESENT   CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.         407 

loft;  the  room  was  lighted  by  one  small  glazed  window, 
half  of  which  was  patched  up  with  boards ;  it  was  alto- 
gether a  wretched  place.  The  furniture  consisted  of  one 
table,  in  a  miserable  condition,  and  a  few  broken  benches; 
the  floor  was  in  a  very  bad  state,  there  being  several  large 
holes  in  it,  some  of  them  nearly  half  a  foot  deep ;  the  room 
was  so  dark  that  the  few  children  whom  I  heard  read  were 
obliged  to  ^o  to  the  door  and  open  it,  to  have  sufficient 
light.' 

"  Of  another,  he  says : 

" '  This  school  is  held  in  the  mistress's  house.  I  never 
shall  forget  the  hot,  sickening  smell  which  struck  me  on 
opening  the  door  of  that  low,  dark  room,  in  which  thirty 
girls  and  twenty  boys  were  huddled  together.  It  more 
nearly  resembled  the  smell  of  the  engine  on  board  a 
steamer,  such  as  it  is  felt  by  a  sea-sick  voyager  on  pass- 
ing near  the  funnel.  Exaggerated  as  this  may  appear,  I 
am  writing  on  the  evening  of  the  same  day  on  which  I 
visited  the  school,  and  I  will  vouch  for  the  accuracy  of 
what  I  state.  Every  thing  in  the  room  (i.  e,,  a  few  benches 
of  various  hights  and  sizes,  and  a  couple  of  tables)  was 
hidden  under  and  overlaid  with  children.' 

"  Of  another,  he  says  : 

"*This  school  is  held  in  a  ruinous  hovel  of  the  most 
squalid  and  miserable  character ;  the  floor  is  of  bare  earth, 
full  of  deep  holes ;  the  windows  are  all  broken ;  a  tattered 
partition  of  lath  and  plaster  divides  it  into  two  unequal 
portions;  in  the  larger  were  a  few  wretched  benches,  and  a 
small  desk  for  the  master  in  one  corner ;  in  the  lesser  was 
an  old  door,  with  the  hasp  still  upon  it,  laid  crossways  upon 
two  benches,  about  half  a  yard  high,  to  serve  for  a  writ- 
ing-desk !  Such  of  the  scholars  as  write  retire  in  pairs  to 
this  part  of  the  room,  and  kneel  on  the  ground  while  they 
write.  On  the  floor  was  a  heap  of  loose  coal  and  a  litter 
of  straw,  paper,  and  all  kinds  of  rubbish.  The  vicar's  son 
informed  me  that  he  had  seen  eighty  children  in  this  hut. 
In  summer,  the  heat  of  it  is  said  to  be  suftbcating;  and 
no  wonder.' 


408        ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT   CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 

"  Of  another,  lie  says : 

" '  In  the  school-room  which,  at  six  square  feet  per 
child,  is  calculated  to  hold  twenty-eight  scholars,  I  found 
fifty-nine  present,  and  seventy-four  on  the  hooks :  some  of 
the  children  are  drafted  off  into  the  master's  dwelling- 
house.' 

"  Of  another,  he  says : 

" '  The  school  is  held  in  a  room  over  a  stahle,  which  is 
a  very  small  one.  The  children  were  much  crowded. 
There  was  a  very  comfortahle  fire  in  the  room  on  the  day 
of  my  visit.  Some  ten  or  twelve  of  the  senior  hoys  were 
obliged  to  sit  in  the  adjoining  chapel,  on  account  of  the 
smallness  of  the  room.  The  chapel  had  no  fire  in  it,  and 
was  very  cold  and  uncomfortable.' 

"  Of  another,  he  says : 

" '  The  school-room  is  part  of  a  dwelling-house,  on 
the  ground-floor,  and  the  smell  arising  from  so  many 
children  being  crammed  in  such  a  small  room  was  quite 
overpowering.  There  was  a  large  fire  in  the  grate  at 
the  time.  The  window  was  a  small  one,  and  was  kept 
closed.  The  floor,  walls,  and  the  room  altogether,  were  in 
bad  repair.  I  observed,  after  the  scholars  went  out  at  noon, 
(for  there  were  no  seeing  any  thing  but  children  while  they 
were  in  the  room),  one  square  table  for  the  master,  two 
long  tables  for  the  writers  and  cipherers,  five  benches,  and 
one  chair.' 

"  Of  another,  he  says : 

"  '  This  school  is  kept  up  stairs  in  two  rooms  of  the  mas- 
ter's house.  There  is  a  door  to  each  room  from  the  land- 
ing at  the  top  of  the  stairs,  but  the  master  can  not  see  all 
the  scholars  from  one  room  while  they  are  in  the  other. 
He  generally  sits  with  the  elementary  classes.' 

"  Of  another,  he  says : 

" '  The  fioor  was  of  the  bare  earth,  very  uneven  and 
rather  damp.  There  was  a  fire  in  an  iron  stove  placed  in 
the  middle  of  the  room.  The  steam  which  arose  from  it 
was  quite  insufferable,  so  much  so  that  I  was  obliged  to 
keep  both  door  and  window  open  to  enable  me  to  breathe. 


ENGLAND — ^HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.        409 

The  master  remarked  that  it  was  "bad  to  a  stranger,  but 
nothing  to  those  who  were  used  to  it." ' 

"  Of  another,  he  says  : 

"  ^  This  school  is  held  in  the  church.  I  found  the  master 
and  four  little  children  ensconced  in  the  chancel  amidst  a 
number  of  old  tables,  benches,  and  desks,  round  a  three- 
legged  grate  full  of  burning  sticks,  with  no  sort  of  funnel 
or  chimney  for  the  smoke  to  escape.  It  made  my  eyes 
smart  till  I  was  nearly  blinded,  and  kept  covering  with 
ashes  the  paper  on  which  I  was  writing.  How  the  master 
and  children  bore  it  with  so  little  apparent  inconvenience, 
I  can  not  tell.' 

"  Of  another,  he  says : 

" '  The  day-school  (which  used  to  be  held  in  private 
houses)  is  now  held  in  an  old  Independent  chapel,  no 
longer  used  for  religious  purposes,  and  rented  by  the 
master.  There  was  a  raised  hearth  of  brick  in  the  room, 
with  a  grate  on  the  top,  but  no  chimney.  There  was  a 
fire  of  culm  burning  on  it ;  the  heat  and  vapor  made  the 
room  almost  insufferable  to  one  coming  from  the  fresh 
air.' 

"  Of  another,  he  says : 

" '  The  floor  of  the  chapel  was  of  earth  and  lime,  very 
uneven  and  broken ;  it  contained  a  few  pews,  a  pulpit,  a 
table,  and  a  couple  of  desks,  with  a  few  benches  in  use, 
others  being  heaped  together  at  one  end  of  the  chapel; 
there  was  a  grate  full  of  culm*  in  the  middle  of  the 
chapel,  but  no  chimney.' 

"  Of  another,  he  says : 

"  *  The  room  in  which  this  school  is  held  is  a  most  mis- 
erable hut,  not  fit  to  shelter  cattle  in,  as  the  thatched  roof 
would  be  any  thing  but  proof  against  bad  weather.  The 
master  said  that  he  often  suffered  from  the  rain ;  and  there 
were  large  quantities  of  straw  inside  the  roof  to  shelter  in 
some  degree  himself  and  pupils.' 

*  This  is  the  name  of  the  common  fuel  in  Wales,  which  is  anthracite  coal 
made  up  into  balls  with  clay.  It  burns  without  smoke,  but  with  a  glowing 
yapor,  like  charcoal. 


410         ENGLAND — HER   PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 

"  Of  anotlier,  lie  says  : 

"  *  The  boys'  free-school  was  held  in  a  most  miserable 
hovel,  lighted  by  four  small  windows.  The  floor  was  of 
the  bare  earth,  and  excessively  damp.  The  door  was  in  a 
very  dilapidated  state,  and  the  rain  was  coming  through 
the  thatch  when  I  was  in  the  school-room.' 

"  Of  others,  he  says : 

"  *  I  am  about  to  enter  on  one  of  the  most  painful  sub- 
jects of  my  inquiry.  It  is  a  disgusting  fact  that,  out  of 
692  schools,  I  found  364,  or  52.6  per  cent.,  utterly  unpro- 
vided with  privies.' 

"  These  are  not  isolated  instances.  I  could  quote  hund- 
reds of  such  descriptions  of  schools  situated  in  all  parts  of 
England  and  "Wales.  I  have  myself  seen  many  which  are 
held  in  cellars,  garrets,  chapels,  and  kitchens,  badly  warmed, 
wretchedly  ventilated,  dirty,  unfurnished,  dark,  damp,  and 
unhealthy.  Are  the  miserable  hours  spent  in  these  miser- 
able places  likely  to  leave  good  impressions  afterward? 
Are  they  likely  to  create  happy,  moral,  and  healthy  ideas 
and  associations  in  the  minds  of  the  children  ?  Are  they 
likely  to  make  the  children  love  what  they  learned  in  such 
scenes  and  places,  and  remember  it  with  reverence  and  with 
a  desire  to  act  upon  it  afterward?  Are  they  not  much 
rather  likely  to  make  the  children  hate  and  shun  every 
thing  which  would  remind  them  of  the  school  and  the  mis- 
erable school-day? 

"  28.  By  far  the  greatest  majority  of  the  criminals  who 
are  convicted  every  year  in  England  and  Wales  are  per* 
sons  who  have  never  been  educated  at  all,  Yery  few  persons 
who  have  received  even  a  tolerable  education  are  found 
among  the  great  numbers  annually  committed. 

"  29.  While  throughout  the  agricultural  districts  of  West- 
ern Europe,  the  children  remain  in  school  until  they  have 
completed  their  fourteenth  year,  and  very  often  until  they 
have  completed  their  sixteenth  year,  very  few  even  of  those 
children  who  go  to  school  at  all  in  our  agricultural  districts 
continue  to  attend  school  beyond  their  ninth  year,  while 
very  many  do  not  continue  to  attend  them  beyond  their 


ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.        411 

eighth  year.  So  that  of  the  children  of  the  poor  who  do 
go  to  school  in  England  and  Wales,  the  greatest  number 
discontinue  their  attendance  long  before  they  have  received 
any  thing  worthy  the  name  of  education. 

"  30.  The  present  system  is  bearing  very  unfairly  and 
very  oppressively  upon  many  conscientious  and  benevolent 
clergymen  in  the  remote  rural  districts. 

"  The  nation  is  entirely  ignorant  of  the  almost  mar- 
velous efforts  which  some  of  the  clergy  are  making 
in  the  remote  rural  districts  to  provide  schools  for  the 
poor.  / 

"  Many  poor  clergymen,  with  not  £150  of  annual  income, 
are,  out  of  that  small  stipend,  supporting  their  schools  and 
teachers  themselves,  wholly  unaided  either  by  the  public 
or  by  their  neighbors.  How  they  can  do  it,  God  only 
knows ;  but  that  many  of  them,  in  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try, do  effect  this  prodigy  of  self-denial,  all  the  inspectors 
unanimously  attest.  These  good  men  receive  and  expect 
no  public  praise  as  their  reward.  They  are  laboring,  un- 
heard-of and  unknown  by  their  fellows,  and  are  looking 
for  their  reward  to  Heaven  alone. 

"  But  what  a  disgrace  to  us,  as  a  nation,  to  impose  such 
a  burden  upon  any  of  our  clergy !  What  a  shame  it  is 
that  the  small  stipend  of  a  religious  and  benevolent  man 
should  be  made  still  smaller  by  forcing  him  to  pay  what 
ought  to  be  borne  by  the  nation  at  large !  And  what  a 
precarious  means  of  support  for  these  schools !  It  is  not 
reasonable  to  expect  that  each  succeeding  incumbent  can 
or  will  be  equally  self-denying ;  and  when  one  fails  to  give 
the  accustomed  support,  such  a  school  must  necessarily  be 
closed. 

"  Such  is  a  short  summary  of  the  state  of  education  of 
the  poor  in  England  and  Wales,  as  attested  by  the  inspect- 
ors of  schools^  by  the  government,  and  by  the  clergy. 
While  foreign  countries,  by  the  aid  of  the  central  author- 
ity, have  established  such  perfect  systems,  and  have  ac- 
complished such  magnificent  results,  the  system  of  leaving 
the  education  of  a  nation  dependent  upon  the  efforts  of 


412        ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 

charitable  individuals  finds  us,  in  1849,  in  the  situation 
which  I  have  described. 

"  I  have  shown,  in  Chap.  IX  of  this  work,  that,  notwith- 
standing the  very  large  size  of  the  primary  schools  in  the 
towns  of  Germany  and  Switzerland,  (many  of  them  con- 
taining as  many  as  ten  class-rooms  and  ten  teachers,  and 
scarcely  containing  fewer  than  four  class-rooms),  there 
were: 

"Jn  Prussia: 

1  primary  school  for  every        653  inhabitants. 
1  teacher  for  every  522  " 

1  normal  college  for  every  377,360  " 

"J/i  Saxony: 

1  primary  school  for  every        900  inhabitants. 
1  teacher  for  every  588  " 

1  normal  college  for  every  214,975  " 

"Jn  Bavaria: 

1  primary  school  for  508  inhabitants. 

1  teacher  for  every  603  " 

1  normal  college  for  every  550,000  " 

"  Jw  the  Duchy  of  Baden : 

1  primary  school  for  every        700  inhabitants. 
1  normal  college  for  every  500,000  " 

''In  Switzerland: 

1  teacher  for  every  480  inhabitants. 

1  normal  college  for  every  176,923  " 

''In  France: 

1  primary  school  for  every        568  inhabitants. 

1  teacher  for  ever  446  " 

1  normal  college  for  every  356,564  inhabitants." 

Such  are  the  educational  privileges  of  the  working- 
classes  of  England  and  "Wales.  So  far  is  England  behind 
even  Continental  Europe,  according  to  the  testimony  of 
Englishmen  who  were  specially  appointed  to  investigate 
and  compare.  These  statements  will  surprise  the  Ameri- 
can people ;  and  they  would  be  beyond  all  belief  were  they 
not  presented  by  England's  own  witnesses.  It  seems  in- 
credible that  the  mass  of  English  workers,  the  English 


ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.        413 

people,  can  be  in  this  state  of  degradation  and  ignorance. 
It  is  amazing  to  learn  how  small  a  number  of  the  inhab- 
itants of  Great  Britain  are  educated  at  all.  England,  at 
the  time  of  the  Crimean  war,  called  on  Europe  and  Amer- 
ica for  aid  or  sympathy  in  her  effort  to  prevent  the  barbar- 
ism of  Russia  from  spreading  over  Christendom.  Within 
two  years,  more  than  eight  thousand  schools  have  been 
established  among  the  Russian  peasants,  while  such  is  the 
wretched  condition  of  the  English  laborers  under  a  system 
which  is  constantly  sinking  them  lower  still. 

Let  our  American  people  ponder  these  facts,  and  com- 
pare the  state  of  England  with  the  condition  of  the  free 
I^orth,  with  its  free  schools,  its  high  schools,  its  normal 
schools  and  colleges,  covering  all  the  land.  Let  them  in- 
quire, and  see  how  many  among  those  born  in  the  Free 
States  are  unable  to  read  and  write,  and  let  them  turn  a 
moment  to  the  Southern  Slave  States,  and  consider  the  ig- 
norance and  degradation  of  the  laborers  there,  where,  as 
in  England,  the  land  has  all  been  in  the  hands  of  an  aris- 
tocracy, and  they  will  th8.nk  God  more  fervently  than 
ever  before  for  our  free  schools,  our  free  institutions,  our 
cheap  lands,  our  homestead  law,  and  our  millions  of  land- 
owners. 

England  is  swiftly  approaching  the  point  where  reform 
will  be  impossible ;  indeed,  in  the  opinion  of  many  of  her 
own  thinkers,  she  has  passed  it  already,  and  the  only  choice 
now  is  between  her  ruin  of  her  people,  or  a  revolution 
which,  as  in  France,  shall  sweep  her  aristocracy  away,  and 
distribute  her  lands  among  the  laborers.  Such  a  revolu- 
tion our  rebellion  is  working  with  the  aristocracy  and 
lands  of  the  South. 

The  next  subject  presented  by  Mr.  Kay  is, 

The  Dwellings  of  the  Agricultural  People  op 
England  and  Wales. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  investigations  have  covered  the 
whole  field,  and. there  can  be  no  mistake.    Americans  can 


414        ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 

now  understand  how  the  laborers  are  housed  on  the  lands 
of  England.  The  writer  has  hesitated  in  regard  to  the 
sad  and  most  revolting  facts  which  the  official  witnesses 
of  Great  Britain  have  collected  and  presented  in  regard 
to  the  cottages  of  the  English  peasantry.  Ought  they 
to  be  laid  before  the  American  reader?  In  deciding  to 
make  somewhat  copious  extracts  from  these  reports,  omit- 
ting the  most  offensive  portions,  the  writer  has  been  guided 
by  two  considerations :  First,  England  has  united  with  a 
powerful  nation  in  hostility  to  us  and  our  institutions,  and 
that  hostile  policy  will  continue ;  she  must  necessarily  re- 
main our  enemy  until  her  own  social  and  political  system 
is  reformed  or  revolutionized ;  and  it  is,  therefore,  wise  for 
Americans  to  study  the  condition  of  her  people,  for  they 
are  the  real  sources  of  her  national  power;  and  the  actual 
state  of  her  laborers  can  only  be  learned  from  such  facts 
connected  with  their  homes  and  daily  life  as  are  stated 
here. 

Second,  Much  is  said  in  regard  to  the  assumed  fact  that 
the  ;people  of  England  sympathize  with  the  IlTorth  in  this 
war,  and  it  is  well  for  us  to  know  the  character  and  influ- 
ence of  this  people  of  England,  that  we  may  judge  what 
influence  they  are  likely  to  exert  upon  the  course  of  the 
government. 

Third,  The  American  people  should  know  the  condition 
of  the  laborers  of  England,  that  they  may  prize  the  more 
the  blessings  of  our  own  free  institutions. 

Mr.  Kay,  after  describing  the  habitations  of  the  poor  of 
the  towns,  proceeds  as  follows: 

"  But  miserable  as  the  habitations  of  a  great  part  of  the 
poor  of  our  towns  are,  the  cottages  and  the  cottage  life 
of  the  peasants  in  our  villages  are  still  worse ;  and,  what 
is  more,  they  have  been  for  some  time  past,  and  are  still, 
rapidly  deteriorating.  The  majority  of  the  cottages  are 
wretchedly  built,  often  in  very  unhealthy  sites ;  they  are 
miserably  small,  and  crowded  to  excess;  they  are  very 
low,  seldom  drained,  and  badly  roofed;  and  they  scarcely 


ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.        415 

ever  have  any  cellar  or  space  under  the  floor  of  the 
lower  rooms.  The  floors  are  formed  either  of  flags, 
which  rest  upon  the  cold,  undrained  ground,  or,  as  is 
often  the  case,  of  nothing  but  a  mixture  of  clay  and 
lime.  The  ground  receives,  day  after  day,  and  year  after 
year,  between  the  crevices  of  the  flags,  or  in  the  composi- 
tion of  clay  and  lime,  water  and  droppings  of  all  kinds, 
and  gives  back  from  them  and  from  its  own  moisture  com- 
bined, pestilential  vapors,  injurious  to  the  health  and  hap- 
piness of  the  inmates  of  the  cottage. 

"  The  cottages  are  fit  abodes  for  a  peasantry  pauperized 
and  demoralized  by  the  utter  hopelessness  of  their  situation. 

"  They  may  be  classified  as  follows : 

"  1.  Small  cottages  built  of  brick,  of  only  one  story  in 
hight,  with  a  thatched  roof,  and  without  any  cellar,  so  that 
the  bricks  or  flags  of  the  room  rest  immediately  on  the 
earth ;  with  two  small  rooms  between  seven  and  eight  feet 
in  hight — one  used  as  the  day-room  and  cooking-room,  the 
other  as  the  bed-room,  where  husband  and  wife,  young  men 
and  young  women,  boys  and  girls,  and  very  often  a  mar- 
ried son  and  his  wife,  all  sleep  together ;  without  any  gar- 
den, and  with  only  a  very  small  yard  at  the  back,  in  which 
the  privy  stands  almost  close  to  the  back  door,  pouring  its 
gases  into  the  house  at  all  hours.  This  species  of  cottage 
is  to  be  found  in  all  parts^  of  England  and  Wales.  In  some 
counties  they  are  very  numerous,  as  in  Cambridgeshire, 
and  especially  in  that  part  called  the  Isle  of  Ely,  in  Hert- 
fordshire, in  Leicestershire,  in  Dorsetshire,  Devonshire,  Som- 
ersetshire, Cornwall,  Surrey,  Sussex,  Kent,  Essex,  Bedford- 
shire, Buckinghamshire,  Berkshire,  the  northern  counties, 
and  in  Wales. 

"2.  Cottages  which  have  two  stories,  with  one  small 
kitchen-room  on  the  ground  floor,  and  with  another  small 
room  above  on  the  first  floor,  in  which  the  whole  family — 
father,  mother,  and  children  of  both  sexes — sleep  together. 
These  houses  have  generally  no  garden,  and  only  a  small 
yard  behind,  in  which  the  privy  stands  close  to  the  back 
door.   This  class  is  very  numerous  throughout  the  country* 


416        ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 

"  3.  The  third  class  of  cottages  are  those  which  have 
two  stories — ^the  ground  floor,  where  there  is  a  day-room 
and  a  little  scullery,  and  the  upper  floor,  on  which  there 
are  two  hed-rooms,  in  one  of  which  the  parents  sleep,  and 
in  the  other  of  which  the  children — ^boys  and  girls — and 
young  men  and  young  women,  all  sleep  together.  In 
many  parts  of  England  and  Wales  this  class  of  cottages 
is  very  rare. 

"The  accounts  we  receive  from  all  parts  of  the  country 
show  that  these  miserable  cottages  are  crowded  to  an  ex- 
treme, and  that  the  crowding  is  progressively  increasing. 
People  of  both  sexes,  and  of  all  ages,  both  married  and  un- 
married— parents,  brothers,  sisters,  and  strangers — sleep  in 
the  same  rooms  and  often  in  the  same  beds.  One  gentleman 
tells  us  of  six  people,  of  different  sexes  and  ages,  two  of 
whom  were  man  and  wife,  sleeping  in  the  same  bed — three 
with  their  heads  at  the  top  and  three  with  their  heads  at  the 
foot  of  the  bed.  Another  tells  us  of  adult  uncles  and  nieces 
sleeping  in  the  same  room  close  to  each  other ;  another,  of 
the  uncles  and  nieces  sleeping  in  the  same  bed  together; 
another,  of  adult  brothers  and  sisters  sleeping  in  the  same 
room  with  a  brother  and  his  wife  just  married ;  many  tell 
us  of  adult  brothers  and  sisters  sleeping  in  the  same  beds ; 
another  tells  us  of  rooms  so  filled  with  beds  that  there  ia 
no  space  between  them,  but  that  brothers,  sisters,  and  par- 
ents crawl  over  each  other,  half  naked,  in  order  to  get 
to  their  respective  resting-places;  another,  of  its  being 
common  for  men  and  women,  not  being  relations,  to  un- 
dress together  in  the  same  room,  without  any  feeling  of 
its  being  indelicate.  'Eov  are  these  solitary  instances,  but 
similar  reports  are  given  by  gentlemen  writing  in  all  parts 
of  the  country. 

"  The  miserable  character  of  the  houses  of  our  peasantry 
is,  of  itself,  and  independently  of  the  causes  which  have 
made  the  houses  so  wretched,  degrading  and  demoralizing 
the  poor  of  our  rural  districts  in  a  fearful  manner.  It 
stimulates  the  unhealthy  and  unnatural  increase  of  popu- 
lation.   The  young  peasants,  from  their  earliest  years,  are 


ENGLAND — HER   PRESENT   CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.         417 

accustomed  to  sleep  in  the  same  bed-rooms  with  people  of 
both  sexes,  and  with  both  married  and  unmarried  persons. 
They,  therefore,  lose  all  sense  of  the  indelicacy  of  such  a 
life.  They  know,  too,  that  they  can  gain  nothing  by  de- 
ferring their  marriages  and  by  saving ;  that  it  is  impossi- 
ble for  them  to  obtain  better  houses  by  so  doing ;  and  that, 
in  many  cases,  they  must  wait  many  years  before  they  could 
obtain  a  separate  house  of  any  sort.  They  feel  that,  if  they 
defer  their  marriage  for  ten  or  fifteen  years,  they  will  be, 
at  the  end  of  that  period,  in  just  the  same  position  as  be- 
fore, and  no  better  ofl'  for  their  waiting.  Having  then  lost 
all  hope  of  any  improvement  of  their  social  situation,  and 
all  sense  of  the  indelicacy  of  taking  a  wife  home  to  the 
bed-room  already  occupied  by  parents,  brothers,  and  sisters^ 
they  marry  early  in  life — often,  if  not  generally,  before 
the  age  of  twenty — and  very  often  occupy,  for  the  first 
part  of  their  married  life,  another  bed  in  the  already- 
crowded  sleeping-room  of  their  parents !  In  this  way  the 
morality  of  the  peasants  is  destroyed,  the  numbers  of  this 
degraded  population  are  unnaturally  increased,  and  their 
means  of  subsistence  are  diminished  by  the  increasing  com- 
petition of  their  increasing  numbers. 

"A  low  standard  of  living  always  tends  to  stimulate 
improvident  marriages,  to  unduly  increase  the  numbers  of 
the  population,  and  to  engender  pauperism,  vice,  degrada- 
tion, and  misery. 

"As  I  have  said  before,  the  landlords  are  unwilling  to 
increase  the  number  of  cottages  in  the  rural  districts,  be- 
cause they  fear  to  increase  the  numbers  of  the  resident 
laboring  population,  and  the  amount  of  their  poor-rates ; 
and  they  are  generally  unwilling,  even  when  they  are  able, 
to  spend  money  in  improving  the  size  or  character  of  the 
cottages,  because  they  know  that  they  can  easily  let  any 
of  the  existing  cottages,  no  matter  how  wretched,  owing 
to  the  great  demand  for  house-room. 

"  The  crowding  of  the  cottages  has,  therefore,  of  late 
been  growing  worse  and  worse.     The  promiscuous  min- 
gling of  the  sexes  in  the  bed-rooms  has  been  increasing 
27 


418        ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT   CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 

very  mucli,  and  is  productive  of  worse  consequences  every 
year.  Adultery  is  the  very  mildest  form  of  the  vast  amount 
of  crime  which  it  is  engendering.  We  are  told,  by  mag- 
istrates, clergymen,  surgeons,  and  union  officers,  that  in 
many  parts  of  the  country  cases  of  incest,  and  reports  of 
other  cases  of  the  same  enormity,  are  becoming  more  and 
more  common  among  the  poor.  And  there  is  no  doubt 
whatsoever  (and  in  this  all  accounts  and  authorities  agree) 
that  the  way  in  which  the  married  and  unmarried  people, 
and  the  diflerent  sexes,  are  mingled  together  in  the  same 
bed-rooms,  and  even  in  the  same  beds,  throughout  the 
rural  districts,  is  tending  to  destroy  the  modesty  and  vir- 
tue of  the  women,  to  annihilate  the  foundations  on  which 
are  based  all  the  national  and  domestic  virtues,  and  to 
make  want  of  chastity  before  marriage,  and  want  of  deli- 
cacy and  purity  after  marriage,  common  characteristics  of 
the  mothers  and  wives  of  our  laboring  population. 

"  But  what  are  the  poor  to  do  ?  So  long  as  the  law  pre- 
vents their  purchasing  land;  so  long  as  they  can  not  ob- 
tain ground  on  which  to  build  their  own  cottages,  as  the 
foreign  peasants  do ;  so  long,  too,  as  the  government  will 
not  interfere  to  educate  the  children  of  the  peasants  in 
higher  tastes  and  better  habits;  and  so  long  as  they  are 
only  the  tenants  at  the  will  of  the  agent  of  a  landlord — 
one  does  not  see  how  the  peasant  has  a  chance  of  improv- 
ing the  condition  of  his  cottage  or  the  social  position  of, 
his  family. 

"  I  can  not  too  often  repeat  that  the  great  primary  causes 
of  the  pauperism  and  degradation  of  our  peasants  are  the] 
utter  hopelessness  and  helplessness  of  their  position.  Wei 
have  done  all  we  can  to  prevent  their  helping  themselves,; 
and  to  deprive  them  of  every  strong  inducement  to  praoj 
tice  self-denial,  prudence,  and  economy. 

"  A  man  will  not  practice  self-denial,  economy,  and  pri 
dence,  without  an  object.  What  object  has  an  Englis 
peasant  to  practice  them? 

"A  peasant  can  not  possibly  buy  land  as  the  forei^ 
peasant  does.     He  can  not  get  a  farm  even  as  a  tenant 


ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.         419 

at-will  of  it.  He  can  not  buy  a  house,  or  a  plot  of  ground 
on  which  to  build  a  house.  He  can  not  even  get  the  lease 
of  a  cottage.  He  can  not  buy  or  get  the  lease  of  a  gar- 
den. He  often  can  not  even  get  the  mere  occupation  of 
a  cottage  for  himself.  He  is  often  obliged  to  take  his  wife 
to  his  father's  or  his  brother's  cottage,  and  to  sleep  with 
her  in  their  bed-room. 

"  What  earthly  inducement,  then,  has  such  a  peasant  to 
practice  self-denial  and  economy?  Absolutely  none.  He 
does  not,  therefore,  practice  any.  He  says  to  himself,  if 
I  put  off  my  marriage  and  save,  what  should  I  gain  by 
such  a  course  ?  I  '11  marry  early.  If  I  can  not  get  a  cot- 
tage, I  '11  take  my  wife  to  my  father's  cottage ;  and  if  bad 
times  come,  I'll  apply  to  the  union. 

"  Such  is  the  hideous  social  system  to  which  we  have 
subjected  our  poor. 

"  How  different  is  the  condition  of  the  foreign  peasant ! 
The  majority  of  even  the  French  peasants  who  have  at- 
tained the  age  of  thirty-five  possess  houses  and  farms  of 
their  own,  the  latter  averaging  from  ^ye  to  eight  acres  in 
size.  The  foreign  peasant  feels  that  his  fate  is  in  his  own 
hands.  He  knows  that,  if  he  postpones  his  marriage,  he 
will  be  able  to  purchase  a  house  and  farm  of  his  own,  and 
thus  to  establish  his  own  complete  independence.  He  is 
not  dependent  on  agents  of  landlords  or  on  landlords  for 
the  condition  of  his  house,  or  for  its  tenure,  or  for  the  ten- 
ure of  his  farm,  or  for  the  social  position  of  his  family. 
All  this,  as  well  as  his  own  future  success  in  life,  depends 
solely  and  entirely  on  his  own  exertions.  This  stimulates 
his  energies  and  exertions.  This  makes  his  life  hopeful 
and  happy.  This  ennobles  and  develops  his  own  character. 
This  makes  him  a  good  citizen.  This  makes  him  a  suc- 
cessful farmer.  This  increases  his  intelligence ;  and,  while 
it  makes  his  life  hopeful  and  happy  even  amid  privations, 
it  makes  him  a  good  and  conservative  citizen  even  in  times 
of  suffering  and  distress. 

"  I  have  myself  examined,  during  the  present  year,  the 
condition  of  the  peasants'  cottages  in  Cambridgeshire,  and 


420        ENGLAND- 

particularly  in  that  part  of  Cambridgeshire  called  the  Isle 
of  Ely,  in  Hertfordshire,  and  in  Leicestershire. 

"  These  are  agricultural  counties,  where  the  land  is  very 
rich  and  very  well  cultivated.  The  farms  are  generally 
of  considerable  size.  The  peasants  have  no  chance  of  ever 
rising  to  the  farmer  class.  The  cottages  have  scarcely  ever 
a  garden  attached  to  them.  The  land  is  all  divided  be- 
tween great  farms  and  parks. 

"l!Tow,  what  is  the  condition  of  the  majority  of  cot- 
tages of  the  peasants  of  these  counties? 

"  They  are  almost  as  wretched  as  they  can  be.  The 
majority  of  them  are  small,  low  huts,  of  one  story  in  hight. 
The  walls  are  about  eight  feet  high.  The  roofs  are  very 
often  thatched.  The  thatch  is  very  seldom  repaired. 
Through  the  top  of  the  thatch  projects  the  chimney. 
There  is  no  cellar  beneath  the  rooms.  The  floors  are 
made  of  bricks  or  flags,  which  are  laid  upon  the  earth, 
and,  as  may  be  conceived,  are  damp  and  cold. 

"  In  the  middle  of  one  of  the  side  walls  there  is  a  door, 
and  on  each  side  of  the  door  a  window,  which  is  but  too 
often  minus  several  panes  at  least,  their  places  being  oc- 
cupied with  rags.  One-half  of  the  interior  of  many  of 
these  cottages  is  boarded  or  walled  off,  so  as  to  divide  the 
house  into  two  little  rooms.  One  of  these  rooms  is  the 
living  room,  the  other  is  a  bed-room,  in  which  sleep  the 
whole  family — parents  and  daughters.  It  is  by  no  means 
rare  for  the  two  sexes  to  sleep  not  only  in  the  same  bed- 
room, but  in  the  same  bed. 

"The  following  remarkable  extracts,  selected  from  vari- 
ous sources  of  the  highest  authority,  will  show  the  miser-j 
able  condition  of  the  cottages  and  dwellings  of  the  peas- 
antry in  other  parts  of  England  and  Wales. 

"  I  ofter  these  extracts  only  as  specimens,  which  I  coul( 
multiply  indefinitely,  if  my  space  would  allow,  of  a  stal 
of  things  which  exists  more  or  less  in  every  county  h 
England,  and  as  proofs  of  the  wretched  way  in  which  th< 
cottages  of  our  peasantry  are  built ;  of  the  miserable  lodg- 
ing and  accommodation  afforded  by  them  to  their  pool 


ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.        421 

inmates;  of  the  wretclied  and  unhealthy  sites  which  are 
often  chosen  for  them  by  agents  and  persons  who  do  not 
care  where  or  how  the  peasants  are  lodged ;  of  the  want 
of  drainage,  ventilation,  water-supply,  and  privies,  which 
distinguishes  most  of  them ;  and  of  the  sickness  and  shock- 
ing moral  degradation  caused  by  this  miserable  and  lam- 
entable state  of  things. 

"  The  first  series  of  extracts  will  show  the  present  con- 
dition of  the  peasants'  houses  in  the  south-western  coun- 
ties— ^Wiltshire,  Dorsetshire,  Devonshire,  Gloucestershire, 
Somersetshire,  and  Cornwall. 

"Mr.  Alfred  Austin,  Special  Assistant  Poor  Law  Com- 
missioner, in  reporting  upon  the  condition  of  the  peasants' 
cottages  in  the  counties  of  Wilts,  Dorset,  Devon,  and  Som- 
erset, says: 

" '  The  want  of  sufficient  accommodation  seems  universal. 
Cottages  generally  have  only  two  bed-rooms  (with  very  rare 
exceptions) ;  a  great  many  have  only  one.  The  consequence 
is  that  it  is  very  often  extremely  difficult,  if  not  impossible, 
to  divide  a  family,  so  that  grown-up  persons  of  different  sexes — 
brothers  and  sisters,  fathers  and  daughters — do  not  sleep  in  the 
same  room.  Three  or  four  persons  not  unfrequently  sleep  in  the 
same  bed.  In  a  few  instances  I  found  that  two  families — 
neighbors — arranged  so  that  the  females  of  both  families 
slept  together  in  one  cottage,  and  the  males  in  the  other; 
but  such  an  arrangement  is  very  rare ;  and  in  the  gener- 
ality of  cottages,  I  believe  that  the  only  attempt  that  is 
or  can  be  made  to  separate  beds  with  occupants  of  dif- 
ferent sexes,  and  necessarily  placed  close  together,  from 
the  smallness  of  the  rooms,  is  an  old  shawl,  or  some  arti- 
cle of  dress,  suspended  as  a  curtain  between  them. 

"  *  At  Stourpain,  a  village  near  Blandford,  I  measured  a 
bed-room  in  a  cottage  consisting  of  two  rooms — ^the  bed- 
room in  question  up-stairs,  and  a  room  on  the  ground 
floor,  in  which  the  family  lived  during  the  day.  The  room 
was  ten  feet  square,  not  reckoning  the  two  small  recesses 
by  the  sides  of  the  chimney,  about  eighteen  inches  deep. 
The  roof  was  of  thatch,  the  middle  of  the  chamber  being 


422        ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 

about  seven  feet  high.  Opposite  the  fireplace  was  a  smaH 
window,  about  fifteen  inches  square — ^the  only  one  in  the 
room.' 

"  Three  beds  were  crammed  into  this  little  room.  There 
was  no  curtain  or  separation  between  the  beds. 

"  One  bed  contained  the  father  and  mother,  a  little  boy, 
and  an  infant. 

"  The  second  bed  contained  three  daughters — ^the  two 
eldest,  twins,  aged  twenty  years  each,  and  the  other  aged 
seven. 

"  The  third  bed  was  occupied  by  four  sons,  aged  respect- 
ively seventeen,  fifteen,  fourteen,  and  ten. 

"  Mr.  Austin  says  :  '  This,  I  was  told,  was  not  an  extraor- 
dinary case,  but  that,  more  or  less,  every  bed-room  in  the 
village  was  crowded  with  inmates  of  both  sexes  and  of 
various  ages,  and  that  such  a  state  of  things  was  caused 
by  the  want  of  cottages. 

"  '  It  is  impossible  not  to  be  struck,  in  visiting  the  dwell- 
ings of  the  agricultural  laborers,  with  the  general  want  of 
new  cottages,  notwithstanding  the  universal  increase  of 
population.  Everywhere  the  cottages  are  old,  and  fre- 
quently in  a  state  of  decay,  and  are  consequently  ill- 
adapted  for  their  increased  number  of  inmates  of  late 
years.  The  floor  of  the  room  in  which  the  family  live 
during  the  day  is  always  of  stone  in  these  counties,  and 
wet  or  damp  through  the  winter  months,  being  frequently 
lower  than  the  soil  outside.  The  situation  of  the  cottage 
is  often  extremely  bad,  no  attention  having  been  paid  at 
the  time  of  its  building  to  facilities  for  draining.  Cot- 
tages are  frequently  erected  on  a  dead  level,  so  that  water 
can  not  escape,  and  sometimes  on  spots  lower  than  the 
surrounding  ground.' 

"Mr.  Gilbert,  formerly  Assistant  Poor  Law  Commis- 
sioner for  Devonshire  and  Cornwall,  gives  the  following 
as  an  instance  of  the  common  condition  of  the  dwellings 
of  the  laboring  classes : 

" '  In  Tiverton,  in  Cornwall,  there  is  a  large  district, 
from  which  I  find  numerous  applications  were  made  for 


ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.        423 

relief  to  the  board  of  guardians,  in  consequence  of  illness 
from  fever. 

"  *  One  cause  of  disease  is  to  be  found  in  the  state  of  the 
cottages. 

<* '  Many  are  built  on  the  ground,  without  flooring,  or 
against  a  damp  hill. 

" '  Some  have  neither  windows  nor  doors  sufficient  to 
keep  out  the  weather,  or  to  let  in  the  rays  of  the  sun,  or 
supply  the  means  of  ventilation ;  and  in  others  the  roof  is 
so  constructed,  or  so  worn,,  as  not  to  be  weather-tight. 

"  *  The  thatch  roof  is  frequently  saturated  with  wet,  rot- 
ten, and  in  a  state  of  decay,  giving  out  malaria,  as  other 
decaying  vegetable  matter.' 

"The  state  of  the  dwellings  of  many  of  the  agricul- 
tural laborers  in  Dorset,  where  the  deaths  from  the  four 
classes  of  disease  bear  a  similar  proportion  to  those  in 
Devon,  is  described  in  the  return  of  Mr.  John  Fox,  the 
medical  officer  of  the  Cerne  Union,  in  Dorsetshire,  who, 
remarking  upon  some  cases  of  disease  among  the  poor 
whom  he  had  attended,  says : 

"*I  have  often  seen  the  springs  bursting  through  the 
mud  floor  of  some  of  the  cottages,  and  little  channels  cut 
from  the  center,  under  the  door-ways,  to  carry  off  the 
water,  while  the  door  has  been  removed  from  its  hinges 
for  the  children  to  put  their  feet  on  while  employed  in 
making  buttons.  It  is  not  surprising  that  fever,  and 
scrofula  in  all  its  forms,  prevail  under  such  circumstances. 

"  *  It  is  somewhat  singular  that  seven  cases  of  typhus 
occurred  in  one  village,  heretofore  famed  for  the  health 
and  general  cleanliness  of  its  inhabitants  and  cottages. 
The  first  five  cases  occurred  in  one  family,  in  a  detached 
house  on  high  and  dry  ground,  and  free  from  accumula- 
tions of  vegetable  and  animal  matter.  The  cottage  was 
originally  built  for  a  school-room,  and  consists  of  one 
room  only,  about  eighteen  feet  by  ten  feet,  and  nine  feet 
high.  About  one-third  part  was  partitioned  off  by  boards, 
reaching  to  within  three  feet  of  the  roof;  and  in  this  small 
space  were  three  beds,  in  which  six  persons  slept.    Had  there 


424        ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 

been  two  bed-rooms  attaclied  to  this  one  day-room,  tbese 
cases  of  tjplius  would  not  have  occurred. 

" '  Most  of  the  cottages  are  of  the  worst  description, 
some  mere  mud  hovels,  and  situated  in  low  and  damp 
places,  with  cess-pools  or  accumulations  of  filth  close  to 
the  doors. 

" '  The  mud  floors  of  many  are  much  below  the  level  of 
the  road,  and  in  wet  seasons  are  little  better  than  so  much 
clay. 

"  *  In  many  of  the  cottages,  also,  where  synochus  pre- 
vailed, the  beds  steod  on  the  ground  floor,  which  was 
damp  three  parts  of  the  year ;  scarcely  one  had  a  fire- 
place in  the  bed-room ;  and  one  had  a  single  small  pane 
of  glass  stuck  in  the  mud  wall,  as  its  only  window,  with 
a  large  heap  of  wet  and  dirty  potatoes  in  one  corner. 
Persons  living  in  such  cottages  are  generally  very  poor, 
very  dirty,  and  usually  in  rags,  living  almost  loholly  on  bread 
and  potatoes,  scarcely  ever  tasting  animal  food,  and,  conse- 
quently, highly  susceptible  of  disease,  and  very  unable  to 
contend  with  it.  I  am  sure,  if  such  persons  were  placed 
in  good,  comfortable,  clean  cottages,  the  improvement  in 
themselves  and  children  would  soon  be  visible,  and  the 
exceptions  would  only  be  found  in  a  few  of  the  poorest 
and  most  wretched,  who,  perhaps,  have  been  born  in  a 
mud  hovel,  and  had  lived  in  one  the  first  thirty  years  of 
their  lives. 

"  *  In  my  district,  I  do  not  think  there  is  one  cottage  to  be 
found  consisting  of  a  day-room,  three  bed-rooms,  scullery,  pan- 
try, and  convenient  receptacles  for  refuse  and  for  fuel,  in  the 
occupation  of  a  laborer.' 

"  The  tenor  of  much  information  respecting  the  condi- 
tion of  many  of  the  laboring  classes  in  Somerset  is  ex- 
hibited in  the  Sanitary  Report  of  Mr.  James  Gane,  the 
medical  ofiicer  of  the  Axbridge  Union,  in  Somersetshire, 
who  states  that — 

"  *  The  situation  of  this  district,  where  the  diseases  therein- 
mentioned  prevail,  is  a  perfect  flat,  called  the  South  Marsh, 
in  the  main  road  between  Bristol  and  Bridgewater.    There 


ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.        426 

are  numerous  dykes  or  ditches  for  the  purpose  of  drain- 
age. The  cottages  of  the  poor  are  mostly  of  a  bad  de- 
scription. The  walls  are  frequently  made  of  mud.  They 
are  often  situated  close  to  the  dykes,  where  the  water,  for 
the  most  part,  is  in  a  state  of  stagnation.  Oftentimes  there  is 
not  more  than  one  room  for  the  whole  family ;  sometimes  two, 
one  above  the  other.  With  the  really  poor,  the  latter  is  sel- 
dom to  be  met  with  (unless  it  should  happen  now  and  then  in 
a  parish  where  a  poor-house  was  built  a  short  time  before 
the  formation  of  the  union).  A  pig-sty,  where  the  inmates 
are  capable  of  keeping  a  pig,  is  frequently  attached  to  the 
dwelling,  and,  in  the  heat  of  summer,  produces  a  stench 
quite  intolerable :  the  want  of  space,  however,  prevents  it 
being  otherwise.  The  ordinary  houses  of  the  poor  peas- 
ants (those  mentioned  above  being  detached  cottages),  in 
most  of  the  parishes  in  this  district,  are  of  a  much  worse 
description,  several  large  families  existing  under  the  same 
roof,  and  each  family  occupying  only  one  room,  and  having 
but  one  entrance  door  to  the  dwelling.  Here,  filth  and 
poverty  go  hand  in  hand,  without  any  restriction,  and 
under  no  control ;  the  accumulation  of  filth  being  attribu- 
table to  the  want  of  proper  receptacles  for  refuse.  Owing 
to  the  indolent  and  filthy  disposition  of  the  inhabitants, 
in  no  instance  have  such  places  been  provided.' 

"  The  following  extract  from  the  report  of  Mr.  Aaron 
Little,  the  medical  officer  of  the  Chippenham  Union,  in 
Wiltshire,  affords  a  specimen  of  the  frequent  condition 
of  rural  villages  which  have  apparently  the  most  advan- 
tageous sites : 

*' '  The  parish  of  Colerne,  which,  upon  a  cursory  view, 
any  person  (unacquainted  with  its  peculiarities)  would  pro- 
nounce to  be  the  most  healthy  village  in  England,  is,  in 
fact,  the  most  unhealthy.  From  its  commanding  position, 
being  situated  upon  a  high  hill,  it  has  an  appearance  of 
health  and  cheerfulness,  which  delights  the  eye  of  the 
traveler,  who  commands  a  view  of  it  from  the  great  west- 
ern road;  but  this  impression  is  immediately  removed  on 
entering  at  any  point  of  the  town. 


426        ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 

"'The  filt"b,  dilapidated  buildings,  the  squalid  appear- 
ance of  the  majority  of  the  lower  orders,  have  a  sickening 
effect  upon  the  stranger  who  first  visits  this  place.  During 
three  years'  attendance  among  the  poor  of  this  district,  I 
have  never  known  the  small-pox,  scarlatina,  or  the  typhus 
fever  to  he  absent.  The  situation  is  damp,  and  the  build- 
ings unhealthy,  and  the  inhabitants  themselves  inclined  to 
be  of  dirty  habits.     There  is  also  a  great  want  of  drainage.' 

"  During  the  latter  part  of  1849,  some  very  remarkable 
and  exceedingly  able  letters  were  published  in  the  Morn- 
ing Chronicle,  describing  the  condition  of  the  cottages  of 
the  peasantry  in  different  parts  of  England.  I  might 
crowd  my  pages  with  extracts  from  these  letters,  all  prov- 
ing the  truth  of  the  description  I  have  given  above  of  the 
cottages  of  our  peasantry.  It  is  impossible  for  me  to  do 
more  than  make  one  or  two  extracts  from  them,  to  show 
how  the  condition  of  the  cottages  of  the  peasantry  is  de- 
teriorating. I  must  refer  my  readers  to  these  remarkable 
letters  for  further  details:  they  will  well  repay  the  most 
careful  study. 

"  The  correspondent  of  the  Morning  Chronicle,  describ- 
ing the  condition  of  the  laborers  in  Devonshire,  Somerset- 
shire, Cornwall,  and  Dorsetshire,  says : 

"'Devon  and  Somerset  have  long  been  classed  in  the 
unenviable  category  of  counties  presenting  the  agricultural 
laborer  in  his  most  deplorable  circumstances.  With  Dorset 
and  Wilts  they  are  generally  regarded  as  exhibiting  the 
unfavorable,  while  Lincolnshire  exhibits  the  favorable,  ex- 
treme in  the  laborer's  condition. 

" '  In  traversing  both  counties,  more  especially  Devon- 
shire, I  was  particularly  struck  with  the  utter  absence  of 
new  cottages.  Along  the  highways  and  byways  their 
absence  is  observable ;  and  not  only  this,  but,  in  many 
places,  there  are  abundant  evidences  that  cottages,  which 
a  few  years  ago  were  tenanted,  are  now,  if  not  altogether 
untenantable,  going  rapidly  into  decay.  Many  are  so 
rickety  and  ruined,  that  to  inhabit  them  any  longer  is' 
impossible ;  while,  as  regards  others,  the  process  of  demo- 


ENGLAND— HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.        427 

i> 

lition  or  decomposition  lias  only  commenced,  confining  the 
wretched  tenants,  who  had  formerly  two  rooms,  to  the 
only  apartment  which  remains,  and  which  they  can  with 
difficulty  keep  together.  In  search  of  these,  one  has  not 
to  go  into  remote  and  sequestered  parts,  where  things  are 
done  which  would  not  he  exposed  to  the  neighborhood  of 
the  highways.  I  have  seen  specimens  of  cottages  in  this 
state  along  the  line  from  Exeter  to  Honiton,  and  in   the 

district  traversed  by  the  high-road  to  London 

"  '  The  cabin  is  so  rude  and  uncouth  that  it  has  less  the 
appearance  of  having  been  built,  than  of  having  been  sud- 
denly thrown  up  out  of  the  ground.  The  length  is  not 
above  fifteen  feet,  its  width  between  ten  and  twelve.  The 
wall,  which  has  sunk  at  difierent  points,  and  seems  be- 
dewed with  a  cold  sweat,  is  composed  of  a  species  of  im- 
perfect sandstone,  which  is  fast  crumbling  to  decay.  It  is 
so  low  that  your  very  face  is  almost  on  a  level  with  the 
heavy  thatched  roof  which  covers  it,  and  which  seems  to  be 
pressing  it  into  the  earth.  The  thatch  is  thickly  incrusted 
with  a  bright  green  vegetation,  which,  together  w^ith  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  trees  and  the  mason-work  around,  well  at- 
tests the  prevailing  humidity  of  the  atmosphere.  In  front, 
it  presents  to  the  eye  a  door,  with  one  window  below, 
and  another  window  (a  smaller  one)  in  the  thatch  above. 
The  door  is  awry  from  the  sinking  of  the  wall ;  the  glass 
in  the  window  above  is  unbroken,  but  the  lower  one  is 
here  and  there  stuffed  with  rags,  which  keep  out  both  the 
air  and  the  sunshine.  You  approach  the  door- way  through 
the  mud,  over  some  loose  stones,  which  rock  under  your 
feet  in  using  them.  You  have  to  stoop  for  admission,  and 
cautiously  look  around  ere  you  fairly  trust  yourself  within. 
There  are  but  two  rooms  in  the  house — one  below  and  the 
other  above.'  The  sleeping  accommodations  '  are  gained  by 
means  of  a  few  greasy  and  rickety  steps,  which  lead  through 
a  species  of  hatchway  in  the  ceiling.  Yes,  there  is  but  one  roorriy 
and  yet  we  counted  nine  in  the  family !  And  such  a  room  1 
The  small  window  in  the  roof  admits  just  light  enough  to 
enable  you  to  discern  its  character  and  dimensions;  the 


428        ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT   CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 

rafters,  whicli  are  all  exposed,  spring  from  tlie  very  floor, 
BO  that  it  is  only  in  the  very  center  of  the  apartment  that 
you  have  any  chance  of  standing  erect;  the  thatch  oozes 
through  the  wood-work  which  supports  it,  the  whole  heing 
begrimed  with  smoke  and  dust,  and  replete  with  vermin. 
But,  perhaps,  the  climax  of  misery,  in  this  respect,  in  the 
district,  is  to  be  found  in  the  village  of  Taversy,  about  a 
mile  distant  from  Thame.  One  house  was  pointed  out  to  me 
there  with  four  rooms ;  each  room  occupied  by  a  separate 
family,  some  of  the  families  being  very  numerous.  It  was 
a  two-story  house,  covered  with  tiles.  There  was  no  com- 
munication between  the  upper  and  lower  stories,  the  for- 
mer being  approached  from  the  outside  by  a  flight  of  stone 
steps,  which  rose  over  the  door  leading  into  the  latter. 
One  of  the  families  counted  eight  or  ten,  of  both  sexes, 
some  of  whom  had  attained  maturity.  The  immorality  to 
which  their  domestic  condition  gives  rise,  I  shall  have 
occasion  hereafter  to  refer  to. 

" '  The  cottages  at  Southleigh,  in  Devon,  are,  if  possible, 
even  worse.  One  house  which  our  correspondent  visited 
was  almost  a  ruin.  It  had  continued  in  that  state  for  ten 
years.  The  floor  was  of  mud,  dipping,  near  the  fireplace, 
into  a  deep  hollow,  which  was  constantly  filled  with  water. 
There  were  five  in  the  family — a  young  man  of  twenty- 
one,  a  girl  of  eighteen,  and  another  girl  of  about  thirteen, 
with  the  father  and  mother — all  sleeping  together  up- 
stairs. And  what  a  sleeping-room  !  "  In  places  it  seemed 
falling  in.  To  ventilation  it  was  an  utter  stranger.  The 
crazy  floor  shook  and  creaked  under  me  as  I  paced  it." 
Yet  the  rent  was  I5.  a  week — the  same  sum  for  which 
apartments,  that  may  be  called  luxurious  in  comparison, 
may  be  had  in  the  model  lodging-houses.  And  here  sat  a 
girl  weaving  that  beautiful  Honiton  lace,  which  our  peer- 
esses wear  on  Court  days.  Cottage  after  cottage,  at  South- 
leigh, presented  the  same  characteristics :  clay  floors,  low 
ceilings,  letting  in  the  rain,  no  ventilation;  two  rooms — 
one  above,  and  one  below;  gutters  running  through  the 
lower  room  to  let  off  the  water ;  unglazed  window-frames, 


p 


ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.        429 

now  boarded  up,  and  now  uncovered  to  the  elements,  tlie 
boarding  going  for  fire-wood ;  the  inmates  disabled  by  rheu- 
matism, ague,  and  typhus ;  broad,  stagnant,  open  ditches 
close  to  the  doors ;  heaps  of  abominations  piled  round  the 
dwellings ;  such  are  the  main  features  of  Southleigh ;  and 
it  is  in  these  worse  than  pig-styes  that  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  fabrics  that  luxury  demands  or  art  supplies  is 
fashioned.  The  parish  houses  are  still  worse.  "  One  of 
these,  on  the  borders  of  Devonshire  and  Cornwall,  and 
not  far  from  Launceston,  consisted  of  two  houses,  contain- 
ing between  them  four  rooms.  In  each  room  lived  a  fam- 
ily night  and  day,  the  space  being  about  twelve  feet  square. 
In  one  were  a  man  and  his  wife  and  eight  children :  the 
father,  mother,  and  two  children  lay  in  one  bed;  the  re- 
maining six  were  huddled  *head  and  foot'  (three  at  the 
top,  and  three  at  the  foot)  in  the  other  bed.  The  eldest 
girl  was  between  fifteen  and  sixteen;  the  eldest  boy  be- 
tween fourteen  and  fifteen."  Is  it  not  horrible  to  think 
of  men  and  women  being  brought  up  in  this  foul,  brutish 
manner  in  civilized  and  Christian  England?  The  lowest 
of  savages  are  not  worse  cared-for  than  these  children  of 
a  luxurious  and  refined  country. 

"  ^  The  atmosphere  of  these  houses,  and  especially  of  the 
sleeping  apartments,  to  an  unpracticed  nose,  is  almost  in- 
supportable. It  is,  perhaps,  worthy  of  remark,  that  dishes, 
plates,  and  other  articles  of  crockery,  seem  almost  un- 
known. There  is,  however,  the  less  need  for  them,  as  grist 
bread  forms  the  principal  and,  I  believe,  the  only  kind  of  food 
that  falls  to  the  laborer^ s  lot.  In  no  single  instance  did  I 
observe  meat  of  any  kind  during  my  progress  through  the 
parish.  The  furniture  is  such  as  may  be  expected  from 
the  description  I  have  given  of  the  place — a  rickety  table 
and  two  or  three  foundered  chairs  generally  forming  the 
extent  of  the  upholstery.' 

"It  is  said  that  this  is  the  condition  throughout  the 
greater  part  of  the  counties  of  Dorsetshire,  Wiltshire,  and 
Gloucestershire.  Another  letter,  inserted  in  the  Times  of 
the  29th  June,  1846,  and  signed,  *  A  Country  Eector,'  says : 


430        ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 

'The  misery'  (described  above),  'I  am  afraid,  is  not  con 
fined  to  that  county  (Dorsetshire) :  if  you  go  to  Devon- 
shire, "Wiltshire,  and  the  hill  country  of  Gloucestershire, 
you  will  find  him  (the  peasant)  at  the  point  of  starvation.' 

"  The  Hon.  and  Rev.  S.  G.  Osborne,  in  writing  of  one 
of  the  parishes  of  Dorsetshire,  viz.,  that  of  Hilton,  which 
he  inspected  personally,  in  company  with  the  vicar  of  the 
parish,  describes  the  degradation  of  the  inhabitants,  and 
the  wretchedness  of  the  houses,  as  something  almost  in- 
credible. He  says :  '  I  despair  of  giving  you  any  faint 
idea  of  the  jnanner  these  people  are  pigged  together  within 
their  dwellings ; '  and  this  parish  *  closely  adjoins  the  park 
of  Milton  Abbey,  the  beautiful  seat  of  the  Earl  of  Portar- 
lington.' 

"  '  In  the  first  cottage,  a  man  and  his  wife  live,  with  two 
children — a  son  of  his  by  a  former  marriage ;  a  daughter 
of  hers  by  a  former  marriage.  This  son  is  married,  but, 
owing  to  want  of  room,  can  not  sleep  with  his  own  wife 
and  children,  who  are  living  in  another  part  of  the  parish, 
but  sleeps  in  a  small  room,  the  only  other  bed  of  which  is 
occupied  by  the  grown  girl,  the  daughter  of  the  woman. 
They  pay  the  parish  30s.  a  year  rent. 

"  '  In  one  compartment  of  the  large  building  were  dwell- 
ing a  man,  his  wife,  and  ^yq  children ;  ^yq  of  them  had 
had  the  fever;  the  man  died  of  it.  With  some  difficulty, 
we  ascended  to  a  bed-room  of  this  cottage :  no  one  by  pen 
can  describe  it.  You  get  into  it  by  a  sort  of  ladder ;  when 
in  it,  you  find  it  impossible  to  stand  upright  anywhere  but 
in  the  direct  center,  for  the  roof  slopes  down  to  the  floor 
at  an  acute  angle ;  three  beds  are  so  placed  as  to  make  the 
base  of  so  many  triangles,  of  which  the  sides  of  the  roof 
are  the  lateral  lines ;  you  must  cross  the  first  to  get  at  the 
second — ^the  second  to  reach  the  third ;  the  floor  is  as  rot- 
ten as  possible,  full  of  holes,  through  one  of  which  the 
husband's  leg  had  gone  on  one  occasion.  I  ventured  to 
ask  how  they  got  a  corpse  out  of  such  a  place.  I  found 
"  they  had  him  down  stairs  to  die ; "  there  he  was  seven 
weeks,  and  then  they  took  him,  dead,  to  the  church-yard.' 


ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.        431 

'^'     #* 

"  *  The  floors  of  some  of  tlie  down-stairs  rooms  are  of 
mud,  in  pits  or  holes  in  many  places ;  where  mended  at  all, 
it  is  done  with  the  rough  stone  of  the  country.  The  parish 
officers  regularly,  when  they  can  get  it,  take  rent  even  of 
the  pauper  tenants,  with  the  exception  of  some  few. 

" '  Behind  these  buildings  is  a  space  between  them  and 
the  broad  ditch,  varying,  perhaps,  from  twelve  to  fourteen 
feet  in  width ;  in  the  said  space,  in  the  case  of  the  first 
two  cottages,  occupied  partly  by  some  out-houses,  rank 
grass  is  growing,  among  which  is  ample  evidence  of  every 
possible  abomination.' " 

These  extracts  from  reports  occupy  about  one  hundred 
pages  of  Mr.  Kay's  book;  they  cover  nearly  the  whole 
field  in  England  and  Wales.  Their  character  is  so  similar 
throughout,  and  the  statements  are  from  so  many  inde- 
pendent witnesses  (men  of  high  standing),  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  doubt  that  here  we  have  a  true  picture  of  the 
general  condition  of  millions  of  the  agricultural  laborers 
of  Great  Britain ;  and  the  worst  feature  of  their  case  is  its 
hopelessness.  The  political  system  of  England  is  abso- 
lutely consuming,  her  laborers,  body  and  soul. 

England  has  such  a  rural  population  to  draw  her  strength 
from  in  that  contest  in  which  she  has  proposed  to  engage 
with  the  United  States.  Her  lands  are  divided  into  some 
fifteen  thousand  plantations;  twenty-two  millions  of  her 
people  are  working  for  wages  for  the  landholding  nobil- 
ity, the  millionaires,  and  the  capitalists;  and  such  is  the 
character  of  these  workers  and  the  manner  in  which  they 
are  housed.  England  is  turning  her  strength  into  weak- 
ness and  decay. 

There  is  one  fact  which  shows,  more  clearly  than  any 
yet  presented,  the  moral  degradation  of  portions  of  the 
working-classes  of  the  cities  and  larger  towns — a  condition 
which  certainly  can  not  be  matched,  except  among  the 
lowest  of  the  heathen.  Reference  is  had  to  what  are  called 
the  "  Burial  Clubs."  From  Mr.  Kay's  description  of  these, 
the  following  statements  are  quoted : 


432        ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 

"The  accounts  of  these  < burial  clubs,'  and  of  the  ex- 
tent to  which  infanticide  is  practiced  in  some  parts  of  this 
country,  may  be  found  in  Mr.  Chadwick's  able  reports 
upon  the  sanitary  condition  of  the  poor. 

"  It  appears  that  in  our  larger  provincial  towns  the  poor 
are  in  the  habit  of  entering  their  children  in  what  are 
called  *  burial  clubs.'  A  small  sum  is  paid  every  year  by 
the  parent,  and  this  entitles  him  to  receive  from  £3  to  £5 
from  the  club  on  the  death  of  the  child.  Many  parents 
enter  their  children  in  several  clubs.  One  man  in  Man- 
chester has  been  known  to  enter  his  child  in  nineteen  dif- 
ferent clubs.  On  the  death  of  such  a  child,  the  parent  be- 
comes entitled  to  receive  a  large  sum  of  money ;  and,  as 
the  burial  of  the  child  does  not  necessarily  cost  more  than 
£1,  or,  at  the  most,  £1  IO5.,  the  parent  realizes  a  consider- 
able sum  after  all  the  expenses  are  paid ! 

"  It  has  been  clearly  ascertained  that  it  is  a  common 
practice  among  the  more  degraded  classes  of  poor  in  many 
of  our  towns  to  enter  their  infants  in  these  clubs,  and  then 
to  cause  their  death  either  by  starvation,  ill-usage,  or  poison ! 
What  more  horrible  symptom  of  moral  degradation  can  be 
conceived  ?  One's  mind  revolts  against  it,  and  would  fain 
reject  it  as  a  monstrous  fiction.  But,  alas !  it  seems  to  be 
but  too  true. 

"  Mr.  Chadwick  says  :  '  Officers  of  these  burial  societies, 
relieving  officers,  and  others,  whose  administrative  duties 
put  them  in  communication  with  the  lowest  classes  in  these 
districts'  (the  manufacturing  districts),  *  express  their  moral 
conviction  of  the  operation  of  such  bounties  to  produce  in- 
stances of  the  visible  neglect  of  children,  of  which  they  are 
witnesses.  They  often  say:  "You  are  not  treating  that 
child  properly ;  it  will  not  live :  is  it  in  the  club  ? "  And 
the  answer  corresponds  with  the  impression  produced  by 
the  sight.' 

"  From  a  very  remarkable  letter  published  in  the  Times 
of  the  18th  of  January,  A.  D.  1849,  by  that  indefatigable 
and  earnest  man,  the  Eev.  J.  Clay,  Chaplain  of  the  Preston 
House  of  Correction,  I  collect  the  following  particulars, 


ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.        433 

still  further  illustrating  this  horrible  symptom  of  our  social 
state. 

"  Mr.  Clay  says :  *  Let  me  recall  to  your  recollection 
some  of  the  murders  for  burial-money  perpetrated  since  the 
publication  of  Mr.  Chadwick's  admirable  report  on  inter- 
ment in  towns.  1.  A  Liverpool  paper  of  April,  1846, 
gives  the  details  of  an  inquiry  before  the  coroner  in  a 
case  of  "  infanticide,  at  Runcorn,  to  obtain  funeral-money." 
It  appeared,  in  evidence,  that  James  Pimlet,  aged  ten 
months,  died  on  the  6th  of  March ;  and  that,  on  the  21st 
of  the  same  month,  died  Richard  Pimlet,  aged  four  years 
and  a  half.  On  the  27th  of  -the  same  month,  a  third  child 
was  taken  ill.  The  medical  man's  suspicions  were  roused. 
The  authorities  caused  the  bodies  of  the  two  dead  infants 
to  be  exhumed.  It  was  found  that  the  mother  had  pur- 
chased arsenic  before  the  children's  illness.  Dr.  Brett 
showed  the  presence  of  arsenic  in  the  bodies  "  in  quanti- 
ties more  than  sufficient  to  cause  death."  The  collector  of 
the  Liverpool  Victoria  Legal  Burial  Society  proved  that 
the  three  children  were  all  enrolled  members ;  that  he  had 
paid  £1  5^.  on  the  death  of  one  child,  and  £5  on  the  death 
of  the  other.  The  steward  of  another  society  proved  the 
payment  of  £1  55.  and  £1  155.  on  the  two  deaths.  Ver- 
dict, "  willful  murder  "  against  the  mother. 

"  *  2.  At  York  assizes,  in  July,  1846,  John  Rodda  was 
convicted  of  the  willful  murder  of  his  own  child,  aged  one 
year.  The  evidence  proved  that  the  wretch  poured  a 
spoonful  of  sulphuric  acid  down  his  helpless  infant's 
throat.  It  was  proved  that  he  had  said  he  did  not  care 
how  soon  the  child  died,  for,  whenever  it  died,  he  should 
have  £2  IO5.,  as  it  was  in  a  "  dead-list."  He  said  he  had 
another  that  would  have  the  same  when  it  died,  and  two 
others  that  would  have  £5  apiece  when  they  died. 

"  *  According  to  the  statement  of  a  leading  death-list 
officer,  THREE-FOURTHS  of  the  names  on  these  catalogues  of 
the  doomed  are  names  of  children.  Now,  if  this  be  the 
truth — and  I  believe  it  is — ^hundreds,  if  not  thousands,  of 
children  must  be  entered  each  into  four,  five,  or  even  twelvb 
28 


1 


434        ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 


cluhs^  their  chances  of  life  diminishing,  of  course,  in  pro- 
portion to  the  frequency  with  which  they  are  enteredi 
Lest  you  should  imagine  that  such  excessive  addiction  to 
burial  clubs  is  only  to  be  found  in  one  place,  I  furnish  yoa 
with  a  report  for  1846,  of  a  single  dub,  which  then  boasted 
34,100  members — the  entire  population  of  the  town  to  which  it 
belongs  having  been,  in  1841,  little  more  than  36,000 ! 

" '  I  would  now  bespeak  your  attention  to  the  infantile 
mortality  in  places  where  burial  clubs  flourish.  In  Dr. 
Lyon  Playfair's  "Report  on  the  Sanitary  Condition  of 
large  Towns  in  Lancashire,"  (p.  53),  it  is  stated  that  among 
the  poor  of  Manchester,  out  of  one  hundred  deaths,  sixty  to  sixty- 
Jive  are  of  infants  under  five  years  old.  One  man  put  his  children 
into  nineteen  clubs  /  .  .  .  .  Dr.  Lyon  Playfair  again  shows 
(p.  54)  that  children  die  in  Manchester,  when  wages  are 
high,  at  a  rate  more  than  that  at  which  they  die  among 
the  poverty-stricken  laborers  of  Dorsetshire.' " 

Such  is  the  condition  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people 
of  England.  These  are  the  elements  of  her  future  prog- 
ress, and  this  is  the  result,  for  the  laboring  classes, 
of  her  boasted  civilization.  Her  social  system,  in  some 
main  features,  is  the  exact  parallel  of  our  Southern  slave 
system.  In  both,  the  lands  are  all  in  the  hands  of  a 
few  aristocrats,  lords  of  the  land;  in  both,  this  small 
class  of  capitalists  and  landowners  seize  for  themselves 
nearly  all  the  earnings  of  the  workers,  they  becoming 
enormously  rich,  and  the  laborers  crushed  down  in  igno- 
rance and  poverty.  It  need  not  surprise  us  that  the  Eng- 
lish aristocracy  should  wish  success  for  the  aristocrats  of 
the  South.  This,  too,  is  the  country,  whose  grave  writers, 
in  stately  quarterlies,  declare  that,  if  an  American  nation 
should  spread  its  farms  and  schools,  its  printing-presses 
and  Churches,  the  whole  glorious  structure  of  our  free 
Christian  civilization,  over  this  continent,  God  -^ould 
undoubtedly  come  down  for  our  overthrow.  And  this 
embodies  about  the  average  wisdom  that  England  has 
manifested  in  regard  to  American  affairs. 


ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT   CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.        435 

The  condition  of  tlie  laborers  of  Great  Britain,  as  thus 
presented  by  English  witnesses,  furnishes  a  lesson  which 
Americans  should  carefully  study.  It  shows  us  that  the 
abolition  of  slavery  is  only  one  step  in  our  great  social 
and  political  revolution;  and  that  there  can  be  no  broad 
and  permanent  basis  laid  for  national  prosperity,  and  no 
security  for  the  masses,  unless  the  working  population  are 
landowners.  The  laborers  must  own  their  own  homes,  as 
the  general  rule,  or  their  condition  will  be  but  little  above 
that  of  the  slave  or  serf,  though  nominally  invested  with 
the  rights  of  freemen. 

The  laboring  classes  of  England  are  free,  but,  with  the 
single  exception  that  they  are  not  chattels,  how  near  does 
the  showing  of  their  own  countrymen  place  them  to  the 
condition  of  the  slave!  In  morality  and  intelligence,  in 
the  manner  in  which  they  are  housed  and  fed,  there  is  by 
no  means  the  wide  difference  which  we  once  thought  be- 
tween the  agricultural  laborers  of  England  and  Wales,  and 
the  slaves  on  the  grain-farms  of  the  South.  It  shows,  in 
the  most  conclusive  manner,  that  wherever  the  lands  of  a 
country  are  in  the  hands  of  a  few,  and  beyond  the  reach 
of  the  workers,  nothing  can  save  the  laboring  classes  from 
degradation,  poverty,  ignorance,  and  oppression.  Unless 
there  can  be  a  land  reform  for  England,  unless  the  pro- 
cess can  be  arrested  by  which  the  small  farms  are  swal- 
lowed up  by  the  large  estates,  it  is  evident  that  those 
who  produce  the  wealth  of  England  must  sink  ever  lower, 
till  nothing  is  left  them  but  such  food,  raiment,  and  shel- 
ter as  fit  a  human  beast. 

This  is  all  that  capital  and  selfishness  have  left  the  la- 
borer anywhere  when  free  to  oppress,  and  the  English 
landowner  is  no  worse  than  the  American  planter  on  his 
great  estate,  and  no  better.  The  fault  is  in  the  system ;  a 
landless  peasantry  in  any  country,  in  any  age,  have  been, 
are,  and  ever  will  be,  either  slaves  or  serfs,  or  but  a  single 
grade  above  these,  when  the  great  estate  system  has 
reached  its  ultimate  result. 

Let  Americans  then  ponder  and  act  upon  the  lesson,  and, 


436        ENGLAND — HEK  PRESENT   CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 

in  the  reconstruction  of  the  nation,  insist  upon  planting 
our  workers  upon  homes  of  their  own,  and  then  give  each 
a  rifle  and  a  ballot  wherewith  to  defend  them,  taking  care 
meanwhile  that  the  free  school  imparts  the  needed  intelli- 
gence. Then  shall  we  have,  indeed,  an  American  nation 
of  freemen,  placed  on  an  immovable  basis,  and  capable  of 
indefinite  growth.  These  statements  of  the  social  condi- 
tion of  England  place  in  a  new  and  equally  clear  light 
the  necessity  of  her  policy,  and  the  cause  of  her  hostility 
to  Russia  and  America.  She  must  control  the  manufac- 
tures and  commerce  of  the  world;  she  must  be  the  great 
money  power  of  earth,  or  she  must  decline ;  and  she  sees 
that,  if  Russia  and  America  are  allowed  to  grow  on  un- 
checked, she  must  soon  hold  an  inferior  position,  and 
hence  her  hostility  to  both. 

Let  no  one,  however,  suppose  that,  because  such  is  the 
condition  of  her  working  population,  England  is,  there- 
fore, weak.  On  the  contrary,  she  is  a  mighty  power,  a 
most  formidable  enemy.  She  is  strong,  because,  having 
wrung  all  wealth  from  her  laborers  and  concentrated  it  in 
the  hands  of  a  few,  it  is  readily  available  for  the  purposes 
of  the  Government,  and,  through  her  thousand  ships,  may 
be  used  to  strike  a  blow  at  any  time  in  any  quarter  of  the 
globe.  She  is  strong  for  the  same  reason  that  Jeff.  Davis 
is  strong,  when,  crushing  all  opposition,  and  all  individual 
rights,  he  seizes  all  men  for  his  army,  and  all  the  wealth 
of  the  country  to  arm,  and  clothe,  and  feed  them. 

Though  she  holds  within  the  seeds  of  revolution  or  de- 
cay, for  the  present,  she  has  at  her  disposal  enormous 
power  wherewith  to  defend  herself  or  injure  others. 

It  is  well,  therefore,  for  Americans  at  this  time  to  study 
the  military  power  of  England.  The  following  tables  are 
copied  from  an  article  in  the  ]N'orth  British  Review  for 
August,  1863,  on  the  national  defenses  of  Great  Britain. 
The  writer  gives  his  authority  for  statements  made,  show- 
ing them  to  be  official,  and  they  may,  therefore,  be  received 
as  an  authentic  account  of  the  land  forces  of  England 
only  six  months  since.    The  article  is  intended  to  quiet  the 


ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC.        437 

fears  of  the  English  people  in  regard  to  a  possible  inva- 
sion from  France,  a  dread  of  which  hangs  like  a  shadow 
over  Britain.  Of  course,  the  national  defenses  are  pre- 
sented in  their  most  favorable  aspect,  and  Americans  will 
see  from  this  statement  how  much  or  how  little  we  have 
to  fear  from  English  armies. 

Strength  of  British  Land  Forces  at  Home  and  Abroad. 


Asia  (exclusive  of  India  and  China), 

China, 

West  Indies,  etc., 

Bermuda, 

Bahamas, 

North  America,     .... 
Australia,  ..... 
New  Zealand,        .... 
Falkland  Isles,  .... 

St.  Helena, 

West  Africa,       .... 
Cape  of  Good  Hope, 

Corfu, 

Malta, 

Gibraltar, 

Total  in  Colonies  (excluding  India), 
Regular  Troops  in  United  Kingdom, 

Total  Regular  Troops  at  Home  and 

Abroad, 

Militia  Establishments, 

Total  Regular  and  Militia  Forces  in 
United  Kingdom,   . 

General  Total  Paid  Troops  at  Home 
and  in  Colonies  (excluding  India), 


1805. 


473/ 

4,194 
490 


344 


6,490 

4,586 


39,543 
78,426 


117,969 
110,556 


188,982 


228,626 


1860-1. 


4,225 
1,102 

424 

4,329 

1,250 

3,626 

35 

676 
1,001 
4,840 
4,256 
7,112 


43,144 
100,218 


143,362 
120,000 


220,218 


1863-4. 


4,359 
24,389 

1,234 

6,538 

2,514 

4,719 

17,008 


63,587 
84,655 


148,242 
140,000 


222,655 


288,242 


Increase 
1805  to  1863. 


1,461 


3,480 

744 
5,538 

2,170 

4,719 

4,256 

622 

1,327 


24,044 
6,229 


30,273 
29,444 


33,673 


69,717 


"These  results  are,  it  must  be  admitted,  sufficiently 
startling.  They  show  that  we  are  now,  according  to  offi- 
cial returns,  maintaining  a  force  of  6,000  regulars  in  this 
kingdom,  and  of  24,000  regulars  in  our  colonies  (exclusive 
in  both  cases  of  India),  beyond  what  we  considered,  and 
found,  sufficient  for  our  security  when  the  French  eagles 
were  hovering  in  the  air  overhead,  poising  themselves  for 
their  swoop.    In  another  view,  they  show  that,  were  we 


438        ENGLAND — HER  PRESENT  CONDITION,  POWER,  ETC. 

still  to  retain  the  same  force  of  regulars  and  militia  to- 
gether that  we  had  in  1805  in  these  islands,  we  might 
nevertheless  dispatch  to-morrow  an  expedition  of  33,000 
men,  without  recruiting  a  man  beyond  our  present  strength, 
and  which  would  be  over  and  above  the  war  establishment 
of  18,000  men  whom  we  at  present  have  in  Canada." 

The  conclusion  is,  that  England  can,  in  the  opinion  of 
the  writer,  spare  about  33,000  men  foi;  foreign  service,  and 
maintain  her  home  defenses.  This  is  her  full,  actual  power 
for  foreign  war,  as  tested  in  the  Crimea. 

The  idea  of  an  English  army  on  American  soil  needs 
not  a  second  thought.  Whether  French  and  English 
troops  may  threaten  us  from  Mexico,  is  a  question  to  be 
settled  hereafter.  When  that  issue  is  presented,  Europe 
will  probably  discover  that  the  Monroe  doctrine  is  not  a 
dead  letter  in  America. 

But  the  English  navy,  as  well  as  that  of  France,  con- 
stitutes a  power  quite  different  from  the  army,  and  the 
question,  whether  we  are  able  to  meet  this  force  upon  the 
sea,  is  a  very  serious  one,  involving  our  national  safety. 

It  is  proposed,  therefore,  to  present,  first,  a  general 
statement  of  the  large  navies  of  Europe  as  well  as  our 
own,  and  then,  by  a  careful  analysis,  estimate  their  com- 
parative strength. 


NAVIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AMERICA,  AND  RUSSIA.    439 


CHAPTER    XXXYI 


THE  NAVIES  OP  ENGLAND,  FBANCE,  AMEKICA,  AND  RUSSIA. 

Many  varying  newspaper  reports  of  fhe  strength  of  the 
navies  of  Europe  have  been  spread  abroad.  The  follow- 
ing statement  of  the  condition  of  the  English  and  French 
navies  is  copied  from  the  [N'orth  Eritish  Review,  for  Au- 
gust, 1863. 

The  writer  gives  the  following  in  a  foot-note  as  his 
authority :  "  The  figures  for  England  are  from  a  Return 
to  the  House  of  Commons,  1863,  N^o.  30 ;  for  France, 
from  the  official  statement  for  1862,  transmitted  by  our 
(the  English)  embassador,  (Parliamentary  Pap.,  1862,  'No. 
177)." 

This  table  is  worthly  of  especial  study.  It  presents  the 
latest  official  statement  of  the  actual  condition  of  the  Eng- 
lish iron-clad  navy,  and  from  it  we  are  able  to  form  a 
correct  estimate  of  the  force  with  which  England  supposes 
she  can  blockade  our  ports  and  crush  our  navy.  It  shows 
us  exactly  the  character,  the  size,  form,  and  armament  of 
her  most  formidable  ships,  and  in  which  her  power,  skill, 
and  science  are  all  concentrated.  They  are,  doubtless, 
among  the  most  powerful  broadside  vessels  in  the  world, 
and,  perhaps,  would  find  no  equal  among  ships  of  that 
class  unless  in  our  own  New  Ironsides,  whose  armament 
is  much  heavier  than  theirs.  Whether  they  are  a  match 
for  our  Mojaitors  is  a  question  to  be  considered. 


440     NAVIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AMERICA,  AND  RUSSIA. 


The  account,  we  are  informed,  includes  vessels  afloat  and 
building ; 


n 

g 

It 

11 

'it 

1- 

n 

w      o 

England, 

21 

69 

44 

16 

30 

... 

9 

380 

566 

103 

France, 

16 

37 

29 

18 

7 

9 

... 

244 

360 

122 

"  At  Kinburn  the  French  Emperor  proved  that  iron-clad 
batteries  could,  without  injury,  sustain  a  fire  which  would 
be  utterly  destructive  to  wooden  vessels.  He  pursued  the 
conclusions  thus  arrived  at,  and  finally,  in  1858,  ordered 
the  construction  of  four  iron-plated  frigates — La  Gloire, 
L'Invincible,  La  N'ormandie,  and  La  Couronne.  The  first 
three  are  on  wood  frames ;  the  latter  is  iron  throughout. 
They  are  about  two  hundred  and  thirty-one  feet  in  length, 
carrying  thirty-six  50-pounders  on  a  single  protected  deck, 
with  two  more  on  an  upper  deck,  unprotected.  Their 
engines  are  of  nine  hundred  horse  power,  and  the  crew 
£.ye  hundred  and  seventy  men.  All  these  are  at  sea,  and 
have  been  found  successful ;  but  the  ports  being  only  about 
six  feet  above  the  water  when  at  load  draught,  they  are 
placed  at  a  certain  disadvantage  in  bad  weather.  Subse- 
quently two  others,  the  Solferino  and  Magenta,  were 
ordered,  which  have  been  launched,  but  are  not  yet  com- 
pleted. They  are  armed  with  a  '  spur,'  projecting  from 
the  bow,  carry  their  guns  in  two  tiers  in  the  center  of  the 
ship,  and  the  lower  ports  are  eight  feet  from  the  water-line. 
Their  length  is  two  hundred  and  eighty-two  feet ;  draught, 
twenty-five  feet ;  and  horse-power,  one  thousand. 

"  In  I^ovember,  1860,  ten  more  were  ordered,  which  are 
still  on  the  stocks,  and  are  being  slowly  proceeded  with. 
They  are  to  be  of  the  Gloire  type,  and  all  of  wood  frames, 
except  the  Heroine,  which  is  of  iron ;  but  the  thickness 
of  the  plates  has  been  increased  from  three  and  a  half  to 
four  inches  of  the  Gloire,  to  four  and  a  half  to  six  inches. 


NAVIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AMERICA,  AND  RUSSIA.     441 

All  the  otlier  iron-plated  vessels  under  construction  in 
France  at  the  present  moment  are  merely  floating  batteries 
for  harbor  defense. 

"Our  own  armor  fleet,  though  more  tardily  commenced, 
now  stands  thus: 


Hull. 

Armor- 
plated. 

Tuns. 

Horse 
Power. 

Length. 

Draught. 

Guns 

Men. 

At  Sea. 

feet. 

feet.  in. 

Warrior,      .     .     . 

Iron. 

Partially. 

6,109 

1,250 

380 

22     9 

40 

704 

Black  Prince,  .     . 

Iron. 

Partially. 

6,109 

1,250 

380 

26     3^ 

40 

704 

Defense,  .... 

Iron. 

Partially. 

3,720 

'600 

280 

24  11 

16 

445 

Resistance, .     .     . 

Iron. 

Partially. 

3,710 

600 

280 

24  10 

16 

456 

Royal  Oak, .     .     . 

Wood. 

Wholly. 

4,056 

800 

273 

25  10^ 

35 

600 

Launched. 

Caledonia,  .     .     . 

Wood. 

Wholly. 

4,125 

1,000 

273 

25  lOJ 

35 

600 

Ocean,     .... 

Wood. 

Wholly. 

4,047 

1,000 

273 

25  10^ 

35 

600 

Prince  Consort,    . 

Wood. 

Wholly. 

4,045 

1,000 

273 

25  lOJ 

35 

600 

Hector,    .... 

Iron. 

Partially. 

4,089 

800 

280 

24     8 

32 

600 

Valiant,.    .     .     . 

Iron. 

Partially. 

4,063 

800 

280 

24    8 

32 

600 

To  be  Launched 

1863. 

Minotaur,    .     .     . 

Iron. 

Wholly. 

6,621 

1,350 

400 

25     8 

37 

704 

Achilles,      .     .     . 

Iron. 

Wholly. 

6,079 

1,250 

380 

26     3J 

30 

704 

Royal  Alfred,  .     . 

Wood. 

Wholly. 

4,045 

800 

273 

25  lOA 

35 

600 

Zealous,  .... 

Wood. 

Partially. 

3,716 

800 

252 

25     3 

16 

Royal  Sovereign, . 

Wood. 

Wholly. 

3,963 

800 

240 

22  11 

5 

200 

Prince  Albert, .     . 

Iron. 

Wholly. 

2,529 

500 

240 

20 

5 

160 

Research,    .     .     . 

Wood. 

Partially. 

1,253 

200 

195 

14 

4 

...  ..• 

Enterprise, .     .     . 

Wood. 

Partially. 

990 

160 

180 

14    4^ 

4 

80 

To  be  Launched 

1864. 

Agincourt,  .     .     . 

Iron. 

Wholly. 

6,621 

1,350 

400 

25     8 

37 

600 

Northumberland, . 

Iron. 

Wholly. 

6,621 

1,350 

400 

25     8 

37 

600 

Favorite,      .     .     . 

Wood. 

Wholly. 

2,186 

400 

225 

20    5 

8 

160 

Other  authorities  state  the  number  of  iron-clads  in  the 
^  French  navy  at  ninety-four ;  but,  as  the  English  reviewer 
;  remarks,  all  but  those  enumerated  are  merely  swimming 
I  batteries  for  harbor  defense,  and  small  gun-boats,  such  as 
t  were  used  at  Kinburn,  in  the  Crimean  war.  Of  these 
swimming  batteries  and  gun-boats,  the  ^N'ational  Almanac 
for  1863  enumerates  seventy-seven,  leaving,  of  the  ninety- 
I   four  iron-clads,  only  seventeen  for  the  ocean-going  ships, 


442     NAVIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AMERICA,  AND  RUSSIA. 

which  corresponds  very  nearly  to  the  statement  of  the 
Review. 

The  condition  of  the  Russian  navy  is  said  to  have  been 
as  follows  in  1862  : 

Steam-vessels.  No. 

Ships  of  the  line, 9 

Screw  frigates, 12 

Side-wheel  frigates,    ........  8 

Corvettes,       .         .         . .22 

Clippers, 12 

Floating  battery  (iron-clad), 1 

Frigate  (iron-clad), 1 

Gun-boat  (iron-clad),    .         .        .        .        .        .        .         .1 

Gun-boats, 79 

Yachts, 2 

Schooners, 25 

Transports, 9 

Small  steamers, 68 

249 
Sailing  vessels, .62 

311 
Besides  these  there  were,  for  port  service,  small  vessels,    .     300 

Such  an  enumeration,  however,  of  the  ships  of  any  na- 
tion presents  a  very  imperfect  idea  of  the  strength  of  its 
navy.  The  three  hundred  small  ships  here  set  down  are, 
probably,  of  no  value  for  offensive  purposes,  or  distant 
service  of  any  kind ;  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  hund- 
reds of  the  thousand  vessels  of  the  British  navy,  or  of  the 
seven  hundred  ships  of  France. 

Since  the  spring  of  1862,  Russia  has  been  actively  en- 
gaged in  enlarging  her  navy,  and  its  effectiveness  has  been 
largely  increased.  Like  other  nations,  she  has  begun  the 
construction  of  an  iron-clad  fleet ;  and  this,  like  the  Amer- 
ican navy,  will,  it  is  said,  be  composed  mainly,  at  first,  of 
ships  of  the  Monitor  class,  of  which  many,  we  are  told, 
are  already  being  built. 

The  first  necessity  of  Russia  is  precisely  like  our  own. 
She  needs  batteries  which  will  eftectually  protect  her  har- 
bors against  the  iron-clads  of  England  and  France ;  and, 
at  one-fourth  the  cost  of  such  a  ship  as  the  Warrior  or  the 


NAVIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AMERICA,  AND  RUSSIA.     443 

Minotaur,  she  can  construct  a  Monitor  battery  that  would 
demolish  either  of  these. 

Russia,  having  an  unlimited  supply  of  material  for  a 
navy,  whether  timber  or  iron ;  ship-yards  so  situated  that 
she  can  defend  them  against  all  Europe ;  having  also  the 
benefit  of  American  experience  and  skill,  is  able  to  con- 
struct a  navy  equal  to  any  in  the  world ;  and,  with  her 
new  and  most  valuable  possessions  on  the  Pacific,  nothing 
can  prevent  her  from  becoming,  in  the  immediate  future, 
a  great  maritime  power. 

The  Monitor  forms  of  battery  will  give  to  Russia,  as  it 
does  to  us,  an  immense  advantage  for  all  purposes  of  de- 
fense. Wherever,  in  her  numerous  rivers,  she  has  ten  feet 
of  water,  she  can  build  a  Monitor  that  will  be  more  than 
a  match  for  any  broadside  frigate  yet  afloat,  or  that  can 
be  floated  across  an  ocean. 

Defended  by  these  batteries — invulnerable  floating  forts 
as  they  are — neither  America  nor  Russia  can  be  success- 
fully attacked ;  while  within  this  impregnable  line  of  de- 
fense they  can  construct,  to  say  the  least,  as  many,  as  swift, 
and  as  powerful  ocean-going  ships  as  any  other  nation. 

But  the  policy  of  Russia,  like  our  own,  demands  peace 
and  self- development,  not  war  and  conquest ;  and  we  both 
need  means  of  defense  that  will  keep  our  ambitious  neigh- 
bors at  home,  and  the  means  on  the  ocean  of  defending 
our  growing  commerce. 

The  American  navy  consists,  according  to  the  last  re- 
port of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  of  ^ve  hundred  and 
eighty-eight  vessels,  seventy  of  which  are  iron-clad.  Of 
the  whole  number,  one  hundred  and  four  are  sailing  ves- 
sels. The  general  account  of  these  navies  will  stand  as 
follows : 

steam -ships. 
England,     .    .     .    .    .     666 

France, 360 

America,     

Russia  (1862),     ...    248 

♦Exclusive  of  small  gun-boats  «(,nd  transports;  when  added,  they  make  1,014. 
t  If  add  swimming  batteries  and  gun-boats,  669. 


Sailing  Ships. 

Total. 

103 

669* 

122 

482t 

688 

'    "65 

313 

444    NAVIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AMERICA,  AND  RUSSIA. 

The  II^^ATioNAL  Almanac  says  Russia  lias  also  four  hund- 
red and  seventy-four  transport  and  coasting  vessels  of 
various  kinds,  but  it  does  not  appear  precisely  what  they 
are.  Russia  has  also  an  iron-clad  fleet  in  course  of  con- 
struction, of  which  no  mention  is  here  made.  Among  her 
iron-clads  are  thirteen  Monitors  of  the  American  pattern, 
ordered  by  the  emperor  after  Admiral  Lissovsky's  report 
of  the  trial-trip  of  the  Passaic  and  of  her  fifteen-inch  guns. 

These  figures,  though  copied  from  official  statements, 
give  only  approximately  the  actual  number  of  the  ships 
of  these  various  navies,  because  changes  are  being  so  rap- 
idly made  that  the  statements  for  1863  will  not  apply  to 
the  present  year.  So  far  as  numbers  alone  are  concerned, 
and  including  all  classes  of  ships,  gun-boats  for  harbor  de- 
fense, and  floating  batteries,  these  navies  may  probably  be 
represented  in  round  numbers,  with  sufficient  accuracy,  as 
follows :  England,  1,000  ships,  including  all  classes ;  France, 
600 ;  America,  600 ;  Russia,  550  to  600. 

Numbers  alone,  however,  affiDrd  no  sufficient  data  by 
which  the  navies  of  these  nations  can  be  compared. 
Steam  has  so  completely  revolutionized  navigation  and  the 
construction  of  war  ships,  that  the  efficiency  of  a  navy 
depends,  first  of  all,  upon  the  number  of  its  steam-ships, 
then  upon  their  speed  and  size,  then  upon  their  character, 
whether  wooden  vessels  or  plated  with  armor,  and,  finally, 
upon  the  guns  with  which  they  are  armed.  If  we  com- 
pare the  steam  navies  of  these  four  powers,  and  take  the 
figures  for  France  and  England  from  the  official  state- 
ments in  the  North  British,  already  quoted,  the  account 
stands  thus: 


English  Steam  Navy, 

566 

French      do.         do., 

.     360 

American  do.        do., . 

484 

Russian  (in  1860), 

.    242 

Since  1860  the  Russian  steam  fleet  has  been  largely  in- 
creased. A  comparison  by  numbers,  though  in  no  case 
reliable,  would  approach  more  nearly  to  accurate  results 
with  the  navies  of  Europe,  than  in  comparing  their  num- 


;. 

[ 


NAVIES  OP  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AMERICA,  AND  RUSSIA.     445 

bers  with  ours.  The  form,  size,  and  armament  of  the 
European  vessels  are  so  far  alike  as  to  enable  us  to  esti- 
mate, approximately,  their  relative  strength  by  a  statement 
of  numbers;  but  the  American  navy  is  so  different  from 
all  others  in  the  character  and  armament  of  its  ships,  that 
mere  numbers  of  ships  and  guns  give  no  true  idea  of  its 
relative  power.  For  example,  the  reports  state  the  num- 
ber of  guns  in  the  English  navy  at  about  16,500,  while 
the  number  in  our  own  is  only  4,500 ;  but  when  we  remem- 
ber that  twenty-eight  of  the  guns  of  England's  j&nest 
frigate,  the  Warrior,  are  68-pounders,  and  the  remaining 
twelve  100-pounders,  while  we  have  many  guns  on  board 
our  ships  which  carry  a  shot  of  450  pounds,. the  apparent 
disparity  disappears. 

Thus  it  is  seen  that  a  correct  opinion  of  the  relative 
power  and  efficiency  of  the  American  navy  can  not  be 
formed  without  a  somewhat  minute  examination  of  the 
character  and  armament  of  European  war  ships  in  com- 
parison with  our  own.  It  must  be  remembered,  these 
comparisons  relate  to  navies  and  war  ships  as  they  are  at 
present.  Inventions  can  not  be  monopolized  by  one  na- 
tion, and  if  it  appears  that  our  navy  and  artillery  are  now, 
in  some  important  respects,  superior  to  all  others,  it  will 
depend  upon  the  skill  and  genius  of  our  countrymen,  and 
the  resources  of  our  country,  whether  this  superiority  is 
retained.  Judging  from  the  past,  however,  we  have  little 
cause  for  apprehension.  Our  mechanics  and  inventors 
have  never  yet  failed  to  protect  the  country  in  her  hour 
of  need,  and  we  may  safely  trust  them  for  the  future. 
In  estimating  the  relative  strength  of  navies,  we  have  now 
to  consider  an  entirely  new  element  of  power,  the  iron- 
clad ship;  and  we  must  add  to  this  the  newly-invented 
heavy  artillery.  Both  these  inventions  are  yet  in  their 
infancy,  and,  astonishing  as  the  results  are  which  are 
already  reached,  all  estimates  must  be  based  upon  things 
as  they  now  are,  for  no  one  can  foresee  how  soon  our 
weapons  and  methods  of  warfare  may  be  revolutionized 
again. 


446     NAVIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FKANCE,  AMERICA,  AND  RUSSIA. 

The  fight  between  the  Merrimac  and  our  wooden  frig- 
ates, and  then  between  her  and  the  Monitor,  closed  up 
one  great  era  in  naval  warfare.  By  that  battle  the  wooden 
navies  of  the  world  were  virtually  annihilated.  After  that 
fight  the  powers  of  Europe,  in  calculating  their  naval 
force,  were  reduced  to  the  small  catalogue  of  their  iron- 
clad ships.  The  London  Times  then  said  that  the  navy  of 
England  consisted  of  four  ships,  and  the  English  states- 
man was  nearly  right  when  he  declared,  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  that  England  had  no  fieet. 

In  a  lecture  by  J.  Scott  Russell,  Esq.,  we  find  the  follow- 
ing :  "  The  first  question  was,  were  wooden  ships  worth 
any  thing  for  purposes  of  warfare  ?  Sir  John  C.  Hay,  the 
chairman  of  the  committee  appointed  by  Government  to 
make  experiments  on  the  eftects  of  artillery  upon  iron 
armor,  uttered  this  fatal  sentence  upon  wooden  fleets : 
*  The  man  who  goes  into  action  in  a  wooden  ship  is  a  fool, 
and  the  man  who  sends  him  there  is  a  villain.'  A  list  of 
the  ^magnificent  fieet'  which  now  defends  England  had 
been  recently  published,  and  it  amounted  to  1,014  ships 
of  war.  This  was  a  very  '  formidable  inventory,'  but  he 
could  give  them  a  very  simple  analysis  of  the  number. 
Of  these  1,014  there  were,  of  wooden  ships,  1,010 ;  of  fast 
iron  ships,  2;  of  slow  iron  ships,  2.  A  fieet  of  twenty 
"Warriors  would  be  more  formidable  than  the  whole  of  the 
1,010  wooden  ships  put  together." 

This  is  English  opinion  of  high  authority  in  regard  to 
wooden  navies. 

It  is  not  intended,  by  this,  to  assert  that  wooden  ships 
are,  hereafter,  to  be  considered  as  absolutely  worthless,  but 
they  must  hold,  in  the  future,  nearly  the  same  relation  to 
the  iron  clads  that  merchant  vessels  have  hitherto  done  to 
the  frigate  and  the  line-of-battle  ship.  A  wooden  ship,  of 
any  size,  may  be  regarded  as  absolutely  powerless  against 
a  properly  armored  vessel,  and,  therefore,  except  as  against 
other  wooden  ships,  or  as  transports,  the  immense  wooden 


NAVIES  OF  ENaLAND,  FRANCE,  AMERICA,  AND  RUSSIA.     447 

navies  of  the  world  may  be  left  out  entirely  in  our  cal- 
culations for  the  future.  This  destroys,  at  a  blow,  the 
boasted  supremacy  of  England  and  France,  and  places 
England,  France,  America,  and  Russia  very  nearly  upon 
an  equality  in  regard  to  naval  power,  with  the  advantage 
thus  far,  however,  on  the  side  of  the  United  States,  as  will 
be  proved. 

When  a  ship  like  the  Merrimac  demonstrated  in  actual 
battle  that  she  could  smash  up  and  send  to  the  bottom  a 
fleet  of  wooden  ships  as  the  mere  sport  of  a  day,  or,  at  most, 
without  impairing  her  fighting  powers,  it  shows,  very  con- 
clusively, that  wooden  navies  are  already  a  thing  of  the 
past,  except  for  certain  limited  purposes.  It  is  scarcely  too 
much  to  say  that,  with  the  armament  which  the  navies  of 
the  world  then  carried,  the  Merrimac  might  have  met  and 
sunk  every  wooden  ship  on  the  ocean,  with  no  material 
damage  to  herself.  She  would  have  destroyed  our  finest 
frigates,  the  Minnesota  and  the  Niagara,  as  quickly  as  she 
did  the  Congress  and  the  Cumberland. 

JN'o  squadron  of  wooden  vessels  can  hereafter  enter  and 
hold  a  harbor,  or  blockade  a  port,  in  the  presence  of  a 
single  iron-clad,  such  as  every  great  naval  power  has 
already;  nor  could  they  attack  a  fort,  with  any  chance  of 
success,  under  the  fire  of  the  new  artillery.  They  may, 
possibly,  pass  a  fort  without  material  injury,  but  they 
would  only  pass  to  certain  destruction  if  they  were  to 
meet  an  armored  vessel  beyond.  Laying  out  of  the  ac- 
count, therefore,  the  wooden  navies,  in  estimating  the 
SictxJLsii  Jighting  power  of  the  nations,  the  comparison  is  re- 
duced to  the  armored  vessels  now  owned  in  Europe  and 
America,  and  the  power  and  resources  of  this  and  other 
countries  for  the  construction  of  war  ships  hereafter. 

The  fact  that  the  armor  plate  for  vessels  is  an  American 
invention,  will  strengthen  our  confidence  in  the  skill  of 
our  countrymen  for  the  future.  As  once  before,  in  the 
style  of  their  frigates  and  their  heavy  guns,  now  again,  in 
the  iron  shield  and  form  of  the  ship,  Americans  have 
revolutionized  the  methods  of  naval  war.    We  may  hope, 


448     NAVIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AMERICA,  AND  RUSSIA. 

therefore,  tliat  she  will  also  lead  the  nations  hereafter. 
The  following  account  of  the  invention  is  copied  from  the 
Scientific  American  for  February  7,  1863 : 

"On  the  22d  ult.,  Senator  Cowan,  of  Pennsylvania,  pre- 
sented a  petition  in  the  Senate  from  A.  Stewart  and  others, 
•asking  for  a  pension  to  the  widow  of  Thomas  Gregg;  it 
being  claimed  that  he  was  the  original  inventor  and  pat- 
entee of  iron-clad  vessels.  This  is  a  new  phase  of  this 
subject,  and  a  brief  history  of  the  invention,  according  to 
the  information  we  possess,  will,  therefore,  be  of  some 
public  interest  just  now.  It  is  generally  admitted  by  Eu- 
ropean engineers  that,  although  iron-clad  gun-boats  were 
first  brought  practically  into  use  during  the  Crimean  war, 
the  late  Robert  L.  Stevens  and  E.  A.  Stevens,  of  Hoboken, 
"N.  Y.,  were  the  inventors  of  them.  Vessels  protected 
with  angulated  iron  plates  were  proposed  by  them  as 
early  as  1816,  and,  for  coast  and  harbor  defense,  a  descrip- 
tion of  such  vessels  was  afterward  submitted  to  a  Govern- 
ment board,  consisting  of  Commodores  Stewart  and  Perry 
and  Colonels  Thair  and  Totten,  in  1841.  It  was  stated  in 
the  document  proposing  the  construction  of  such  a  vessel 
for  the  defense  of  !N'ew  York,  that  plates  of  iron  four 
inches  in  thickness  were  equal  to  ^ye  feet  four  inches  of 
oak  in  resisting  a  ball  at  point-blank  distance ;  and,  with 
the  guns  then  in  use,  it  was  supposed  that  none  of  their 
shot  could  penetrate  a  vessel  clad  with  such  armor.  In 
1843,  a  contract  was  formed  between  our  Government  and 
Messrs.  Stevens  for  the  construction  of  such  a  floating 
battery,  and  $500,000  was  furnished  by  Government,  and 
expended  on  the  battery  now  at  Hoboken. 

"  During  the  Crimean  war,  in  1855,  it  was  found  that 
wooden  steam  frigates  were  totally  useless  in  attacking 
granite  casemated  forts,  defended  by  big  guns  firing  shells. 
An  application  of  Stevens's  invention  was  suggested,  and 
several  iron-clad  gun-boats  were  then  built  for  the  French 
and  English  navies.  A  few  of  these  were  employed  at  the 
siege  of  Kinburn,  and  were  decidedly  successful.    This  led 


NAVIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AMERICA,  AND  RUSSIA.     449 

the  Emperor  of  France  to  extend  the  application  of  iron 
plates  to  one  of  his  large  frigates — La  Gloire — which  was 
completed  three  years  ago,  and  was  the  first  regular  iron- 
clad war  ship  ever  built.  Since  then  several  have  been 
constructed  for  the  French  and  English  navies — the  Ameri- 
can invention  having  thus  been  first  carried  into  practical 
use  in  Europe." 

In  order  to  mark  the  progress  of  the  art  of  mailing  ves- 
sels, from  the  first  rude  application  of  the  American  idea 
by  Louis  N'apoleon  to  his  gun-boats,  at  Kinburn,  to  its  pres- 
ent condition,  and  to  exhibit  the  marked  peculiarities  of 
the  American  iron-clads,  it  will  be  instructive  to  trace  the- 
difierent  steps.  Passing  by  the  small  gun-boats  which 
fought  at  Kinburn,  the  first  important  trial  of  the  iron 
mail  was  by  the  French  Emperor  on  the  frigate  La  Gloire, 
the  construction  of  which  was  ordered  in  1858.  She  is 
simply  a  frigate  of  the  common  model,  cased  with  iron 
plates  about  four  inches  thick.  The  plates  are  said  to  be 
three  and  a  half  inches  thick  at  the  stern  and  bow,  and 
four  and  a  half  inches  in  the  center,  covering  the  ship's^ 
battery. 

She  is  described  from  French  authorities  as  about  25T 
feet  long,  carrying  thirty-six  50-pounders  on  a  single  pro- 
tected deck.  Her  engine  is  of  900-horse  power,  and  her 
crew  consists  of  500  men.  Her  ports  are  only  six  feet 
above  the  water.  Her  width  is  fifty-six  feet,  and  her 
speed  thirteen  and  a  quarter  knots  per  hour.  The  French 
Emperor  is  constructing  ten  more  iron-cased  frigates  of 
this  class.  Besides  these,  France  has  now  at  sea  the  Nor- 
mandie,  the  Invincible,  the  Couronne,  and  two  larger  iron- 
clad rams,  the  Solferino  and  the  Magenta. 

These  last  carry  each  fifty-two  guns,  and  have  a  speed 
of  thirteen  and  a  half  knots  per  hour.  The  lower  ports 
of  these  are  eight  feet  above  the  water.  It  is  also  stated' 
by  the  ;N"orth  British  Review  (August,  1863),  that  these 
largest  French  frigates  are  plated  in  the  center  with  iron 
six  inches  thick.  It  may  be  stated,  then,  with  sufficient, 
29 


450     NAVIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AMERICA,  AND  RUSSIA. 

accuracy,  that  Louis  i^apoleon  has  at  present  a  fleet  of 
sixteen  iron-clad  frigates,  carrying,  each,  from  thirty-six 
to  fifty-two  rifled  50-pounders ;  that  their  armor-plates  are 
some  four  and  a  half  and  some  six  inches  thick,  and  that 
they  have  a  speed  equal  to  our  fastest  war  ships,  with  the 
exception  of  some  of  our  small  and  latest  built  ships, 
such  as  the  Eutaw  and  the  Sassacus,  being  much  swifter 
than  any  of  our  own  iron-cla^s. 

The  I:*[ormandie  has  crossed  the  Atlantic,  but  no  very 
favorable  account  has  yet  been  given  of  the  sea-going 
qualities  of  any  of  these  French  ships.  They  are  said  to 
roll  very  heavily,  and  that  their  batteries  can  not  be  used 
in  a  heavy  sea,  because  the  ports  roll  under.  They  are 
also  said  to  be  very  unhealthy.  These  are  very  likely  to 
be  objections  to  all  iron-clads,  because,  when  in  action,  few 
of  them  can  be  properly  ventilated,  and  the  same  must 
be  true  of  them  in  heavy  weather.  So  far  as  is  known, 
all  the  broadside  iron-plated  ships  roll  heavily  in  a  rough 
sea,  and  the  remedy  for  this  does  not,  as  yet,  appear. 

An  inspection  of  the  table  already  copied  from  the 
North  British  will  show  that  English  mailed  vessels  are, 
many  of  them,  of  much  greater  size  and  power  than  any 
yet  constructed  by  the  French.  Nearly  all  of  them  are 
larger  than  the  American  Ironsides  or  Roanoke,  and  sev- 
eral of  them  are  longer  and  of  greater  tunnage  than  the 
Dunderberg,  our  largest  iron-clad.  A  brief  description  of 
three  of  these  vessels  will  enable  the  reader  to  compare 
them  with  our  own  iron-plated  fleet,  and  to  judge  whether 
we  have  reason  for  apprehension  should  we  be  compelled 
to  meet  them. 

The  Warrior  and  the  Black  Prince  are  regarded  as  the 
model  ships  of  the  iron  navy  of  England,  and  they  may 
be  considered  as  embodying  the  utmost  skill  and  science 
of  Great  Britain  at  the  present  time.  These  ships  are  380 
feet  long ;  their  tunnage  is  6,000  tuns ;  their  draught  is,  of 
the  one,  22  feet  9  inches,  and  of  the  Black  Prince,  26  feet 
3  inches.  They  each  carry  forty  guns  :  twenty-eight  68- 
pounder,  and  twelve  100-pounder  Armstrong  guns.     Their 


NAVIES  OF  ENGLAND,  TRANCE,  AMERICA,  AND  RUSSIA.     451 

crew  is  704  men.  Their  armor-plates  are  four  and  a  half 
inches  thick,  and  the  Warrior,  on  her  trial  trip,  had  a 
speed  of  fourteen  knots,  and  the  Black  Prince  ran  from 
twelve  to  thirteen  knots  per  hour.  Their  engines  are  of 
1,250-horse  power. 

These  ships  are  only  plated  with  iron  for  two-thirds  of 
their  length,  the  how  and  stern  being,  as  English  writers  af- 
firm, more  vulnerable  than  a  common  wooden  ship.  The 
battery  only  is  protected  by  the  iron  mail,  while  about 
sixty  feet  of  the  stern  and  bow  are  like  a  common  vessel. 

The  Minotaur  is  400  feet  long ;  her  tunnage  is  6,621 
tuns ;  her  engines  are  of  1,350-horse  power ;  her  draught 
is  25  feet  8  inches,  and  she  is  to  carry  thirty-seven  guns. 
Her  speed  has  not  been  ascertained.  Portions  of  the  armor 
of  this  ship  are  said  to  be  six  inches  thick.  The  Bellero- 
phon  is  a  newly-devised  iron-clad,  now  being  built,  whose 
coming  is  thus  heralded  by  the  London  Times  :  She  will 
be  "  as  terrible  an  assailant  to  iron-clads  as  an  iron-clad 
would  be  to  wooden  ships.  The  object  with  which  this 
vessel  is  designed  is,  in  case  of  another  great  war,  to  avoid 
repetition  of  the  long,  dreary  process  of  blockading  an 
enemy's  fleet,  by  wearisome  and  dangerous  cruising  ofi:^  the 
mouth  of  harbors.  The  Bellerophon  is,  in  short,  to  a  fleet 
of  iron-clads  what  a  fox-terrier  is  to  a  pack  of  hounds. 
In  case  of  an  enemy's  iron  fleet  running  into  port,  she  can 
follow  them  with  impunity.'^ 

But  in  the  description  which  the  Times  gives  of  what  it 
calls  "this  monster,"  one  fails  to  discover  the  immense 
superiority  which  is  claimed. 

She  is  300  feet  long,  56  feet  beam,  has  a  draught  of 
25  feet,  and  her  tunnage  is  4,246  tuns.  "  It  is  hoped,"  if 
certain  improvements  work  well,  that  she  will  make  fif- 
teen knots  per  hour;  but  she  is  on  the  stocks  as  yet,  and 
her  speed  is  yet  to  be  determined.  Her  armor-plates  are 
*  six  inches  thick,  but  they  reach  to  the  upper  deck  for  only 
l^ninety  feet  of  the  ship's  length  ;  for  the  remaining  distance 
of  two  hundred  and  ten  feet,  the  plating  reaches  only  six 
feet  above  the  water,  and  all  above  this  line  and  both 


452    NAVIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AMERICA,  AND  RUSSIA. 

ends  of  the  vessel  are  unprotected.  She  is  to  be  armed 
with  ten  broadside  guns,  of  what  size  we  are  not  informed, 
and  probably  that  is  not  yet  determined.  Of  iron-mailed 
vessels,  of  the  general  character  described — most  of  them, 
however,  somewhat  smaller — England  has  between  twenty 
and  thirty  built,  or  in  process  of  construction.  Like  those 
of  France,  they  are  all  broadside  ships,  and,  of  course,  ex- 
pose an  immense  surface  to  an  enemy's  fire.  The  import- 
ance of  this  will  appear,  when  they  are  compared  with  the 
American  Monitor  form  of  war  ship. 

The  objections  made  to  the  French  ships  are,  that  they 
can  not  use  their  batteries  except  when  the  sea  is  smooth, 
and  that,  in  rough  weather,  they  roll  so  as  to  render  them 
not  only  uncomfortable,  but  dangerous.  The  English 
ships  require  from  25  to  26  feet  of  water,  and  are,  there- 
fore, unable  to  enter  our  principal  harbors.  From  their 
great  size,  they  are  unwieldy;  the  joints  of  their  armor- 
plates  work  in  a  sea,  and  leak ;  they  do  not  steer  safely ; 
and,  from  the  general  tone  of  English  criticisms,  one  is 
led  to  infer  that  they  are  by  no  means  satisfied  with  the 
performance  of  the  iron  fleet.  But,  as  neither  the  French 
nor  English  ships  have  been,  as  yet,  tested  in  battle,  no 
very  definite  opinion  of  their  qualities  can  be  formed. 

We  know,  however,  exactly  the  effect  which  certain 
kinds  of  artillery  will  produce  upon  iron  plates,  such  as 
those  which  form  their  armor ;  and  as  the  American  ships 
have  been  exposed,  at  short  range,  to  the  heaviest  cannon 
and  the  most  destructive  shot  which  England  could  fur- 
nish to  the  rebels,  while  at  the  same  time  our  guns  have 
been  tried  upon  armor-plates  in  action,  we  have  the  means 
of  forming  a  very  accurate  opinion  of  our  power  for  attack 
or  defense,  as  compared  with  other  nations. 

The  condition  and  character  of  the  American  navy  de- 
mands a  separate  chapter,  and  this  will  involve,  also,  a 
description  of  our  artillery,  and  then  all  will  be  able  to 
make  the  proper  comparison  between  our  navy  and  those 
of  Europe. 


THB  AMERICAN  NAVY.  453 


CHAPTER    XXXVII 


THB  AMBBICAN    NAVY, 

At  the  commencement  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  administration 
our  navy  consisted  of  only  forty-six  vessels.  In  December, 
1863,  it  numbered  588  vessels,  mounted  with  4,443  guns. 
The  aggregate  tunnage  of  these  ships  was  about  468,000 
tuns. 

The  creation  of  such  a  navy  in  so  short  a  time,  consid- 
ering the  number  and  character  of  the  vessels,  is  without 
a  parallel  in  the  history  of  war.  It  is  at  once  a  most 
cheering  proof  of  the  vast  resources  of  our  country,  and 
of  the  wisdom  and  energy  with  which  our  IsTavy  Depart- 
ment has  been  conducted.  In  the  brief  space  between  the 
breaking  out  of  the  war  and  December,  1863,  the  country 
has  been  elevated  into  a  first-class  naval  power ;  and, 
probably,  those  who  have  been  disposed  to  criticise  the 
operations  of  the  Secretary  would  find  it  very  difficult  to 
point  out  a  course  by  which  the  safety  and  honor  of  the 
country  would  have  been  more  securely  guarded. 

It  is  no  small  proof  of  ability  in  the  management  of  the 
navy,  that  there  was  skill  enough  to  provide,  and  inde- 
pendence enough  to  use,  a  form  of  war  ship  and  a  kind 
of  cannon  before  untried,  but  which  time  and  experience 
have  shown  were  alone,  of  all  ships  and  weapons  then 
known,  capable  of  meeting  the  emergency. 

Had  there  been  a  frigate  built  like  the  Warrior  in 
Hampton  Roads  at  the  time  of  the  appearance  of  the 


454  THE   AMERICAN  NAVY. 

Merrimac,  ana  armed  with  the  Warrior's  guns,  there  are 
good  reasons  for  believing  that  she  would  have  been  over- 
matched by  the  rebel  ship.  The  Merrimac,  with  her  heavy 
armament  and  her  sloping  armor,  could  not,  probably,  at 
that  time,  have  been  beaten  by  any  ship  afloat,  except  the 
Monitor.  The  Monitors  and  the  fifteen-inch  guns  have 
rendered  the  creation  of  a  rebel  navy  impossible,  and  these 
alone  could  have  done  it ;  and  this  is  a  sufficient  answer  to 
all  by  whom  they  have  been  condemned. 

This  subject,  however,  will  be  more  fully  discussed  in 
another  place.  The  American  navy  is  an  original  creation. 
In  the  forms  of  its  most  powerful  ships,  and  the  character 
of  its  armament,  it  is  unlike  every  other. 

A  thorough  study  of  all  the  other  navies  of  the  world 
would  give  no  data  from  which  to  judge  of  the  efficiency 
of  the  American  vessels.  One  would  be  entirely  deceived 
by  counting  their  guns,  or  estimating  their  length,  breadth, 
and  tunnage,  or  the  number  of  their  crews.  These  things 
alone  do  not  inform  us  whether  they  are  superior  or  infe- 
rior to  the  war  ships  of  other  nations.  They  are  modeled 
after  new  and  strictly  American  ideas.  Whether  good  or 
bad,  they  belong  entirely  to  this  new  world.  They  are 
creations  of  this  Western  Republic.  Not  alone  our  Moni- 
tors, but  our  other  ships,  are  American  in  their  fitting  up, 
and  in  the  character  of  their  weapons.  Judged  by  ihe  old 
standards,  nothing  is  more  deceitful.  An  American  ship 
of  two  guns,  of  the  latest  model,  may,  perhaps,  prove  a 
match  for  a  common  forty-gun  frigate ;  and  it  is  very  cer- 
tain that  we  have  two-gun  vessels,  one  of  which  might 
destroy  the  whole  fleet  with  which  Nelson  fought.  It  is 
necessary,  then,  to  know  both  the  character  and  the  arma- 
ment of  our  war  vessels  before  we  can  judge  of  their  effi- 
ciency. The  following  statements  will  furnish  the  necessary 
information  : 

It  will,  probably,  not  be  denied  that,  up  to  the  time  of 
the  invention  of  armor-clad  vessels,  the  Americans  had 
been  the  teachers  of  the  nations  in  the  art  of  ship-build- 
ing, whether  sail  or  steam  vessels,  whether  for  commerce 


THE  AMERICAN  NAVY.  455 

or  for  war.  Great  length,  as  compared  with  tunnage, 
sharpness  of  bow,  and  speed,  were  characteristics  of  Amer- 
ican ships  and  steamboats.  It  is  not  deemed  exaggeration 
that  American  genius  has  revolutionized  naval  architecture, 
and  that  the  speed  of  European  ships  has  been  obtained 
by  following,  in  the  main,  the  model  of  the  vessels  of  the 
United  States.  The  ocean  tub  has  been  displaced  every- 
where by  the  long,  graceful  structure,  which  first  of  all 
bore  the  Stripes  and  Stars.  The  London  Times  sneered  at 
the  Niagara  when  she  went  over  to  aid  in  laying  the 
Atlantic  cable ;  but  the  finest  frigates  and  corvettes  which 
England  has  since  built  have  assumed  the  Yankee  form, 
and  their  boasted  Warrior  appears  like  a  l^iagara  some- 
what magnified. 

A  writer  in  an  English  quarterly  boasts  that  the  British 
ocean  mail-steamers  have  driven  the  American  ones  from 
the  seas ;  but  he  forgets  to  state  that  the  Collins  line  fur- 
nished the  model  for  her  ships,  and  that  the  American  line 
failed  only  because,  in  a  new  enterprise,  and  one  so  expens- 
ive, private  capital  could  not  contend  against  the  patron- 
age of  the  British  government. 

Had  our  government  given  a  liberal  and  steady  support 
to  our  own  vessels,  there  would  have  been  a  difterent  re- 
sult. The  fact  that  our  steamers  have  obtained  a  speed  of 
twenty-five  miles  per  hour  upon  the  Hudson ;  that  some 
of  our  lake  vessels  have  made  twenty-two  miles  per  hour 
for  hours  together — such  steam-ships  as  the  Yanderbilt  and 
those  of  the  California  line  ;  and  the  fact  that  our  new  war 
steamers  overhaul  the  swiftest  steamers  that  our  English 
friends  have  built  to  run  the  blockade,  these  things  do  not 
indicate  that  we  shall  be  very  soon  driven  from  the  ocean 
by  the  superiority  of  the  vessels  of  other  nations. 

Such  of  our  iron-clads  as  are  yet  afloat  lack  speed,  but 
the  main  idea  in  their  construction  was  invulnerability; 
and  the  event  has  shown,  that  if  this  had  been  sacrificed 
to  speed  or  any  other  quality,  it  would  have  been  fatal  to 
our  navy  and  our  country's  cause. 

There  is  great  reason  to  be  thankful  that  those-  at  tho 


456  THE  AMERICAN  NAVY. 

head  of  our  navy  were  wise  enougli,  in  the  first  experi- 
ment upon  which  our  all  depended,  to  construct  ships 
which  no  artillery  of  the  enemy  could  penetrate ;  for  upon 
that  single  question  the  destiny  of  the  country  was  at  that 
moment  hung. 

The  best  and  most  destructive  projectiles  of  Europe 
were  hurled  against  our  ships  at  Charleston,  and  Europe 
was  watching  earnestly  the  result.  It  would  inform  Eng- 
land and  France  whether  intervention  would  be  safe. 

The  only  armored  vessel  of  the  common  form  which 
attacked  Fort  Darling  was  ruined  by  ten-inch  shot ;  and 
the  only  Monitor-shaped  ship  in  which  speed  was  aimed  at 
in  the  construction,  was  riddled  and  sunk  at  Charleston. 

Had  all  our  vessels  at  Charleston  been  as  vulnerable  as 
the  Keokuk,  the  rebel  cause  would  have  triumphed  at 
home  and  abroad,  though  our  fleet  had  been  the  swiftest 
on  the  ocean. 

Four  distinct  eras  appear  in  the  creation  of  our  navy. 
In  one  of  these  we  followed  the  European  models,  and 
failed  to  produce  an  effective  ship.  The  distinctive 
American  idea  has  controlled  the  other  three — the  plac- 
ing the  heaviest  possible  armament  in  the  smallest 
possible  space,  thus  diminishing  the  size  of  the  ship  in 
proportion  to  her  armament,  presenting  a  smaller  surface 
to  an  enemy's  shot,  and  lessening  the  number  of  the  crew. 
If  to  this  is  added  the  American  idea  of  a  heavy  shot  with 
a  low  velocity,  rather  than  a  small  one  with  greater  veloc- 
ity, the  idea  of  a  smashing  projectile  rather  than  a  pene- 
trating one,  the  reader  will  have  the  leading  principles 
which  have  governed  the  construction  of  the  American 
navy  and  the  manufacture  of  American  cannon.  Through 
various  steps  and  countless  experiments,  these  ideas  have 
led  to  the  Monitors  and  the  fifteen-inch  and  twenty-inch 
guns,  while,  at  the  same  time,  every  effort  has  been  made 
to  perfect  our  rifled  cannon. 

The  ships  with  which  the  Americans  won  their  first 
naval  renown,  in  the  war  of  1812-15,  were  constructed 
with  the  intention  of  bringing  the  armament  of  a  line-oi- 


THE  AMERICAN  NAVY.  457 

battle  ship  witliin  the  limits  of  a  frigate.  This  was  so 
nearly  accomplished  as  to  fill  England  with  astonishment 
and  alarm.  It  was  found  that  the  registered  rate  of  our 
vessels  by  no  means  indicated  their  actual  power ;  and  the 
result  was,  that  when  the  Guerriere,  a  British  forty-four- 
gun  frigate,  was  laid  along  side  the  Constitution,  an  Amer- 
ican forty-four,  the  English  frigate  was  demolished  in 
fifteen  minutes.  Similar  results  followed,  as  is  well  known, 
in  other  actions ;  and  though  it  was  conceded  that  the 
rapidity  of  the  American  fire  was  generally  greater  than 
that  of  the  English,  still  our  almost  unbroken  success  was 
probably  mainly  due  to  the  superior  weight  of  the  Amer- 
ican broadside.  The  manner  in  which  the  American  idea 
of  a  heavy  armament  was  carried  out,  will  appear  from 
the  following  comparison  between  British  and  American 
ships  which  fought  in  the  war  of  1812-'15.  The  figures 
rest  upon  the  authority  of  "  James's  Naval  History,"  and 
"  Cooper,"  as  quoted  by  Mr.  Alison.  The  weight  of  the 
broadside  is  thus  stated : 

American  frigate  Constitution,  .         .        ,  768  lbs. 

American  frigate  United  States,  ....  864  lbs. 

British  frigate  Guerriere, 617  lbs. 

British  frigate  Macedonian, ...  .  528  lbs. 

The  advantage  thus  gained  was  decisive,  and  the  results 
gave  an  eclat  and  character  to  the  American  navy  which 
it  has  never  lost.  It  was  the  first  triumph  of  American 
sagacity  on  the  ocean,  and  it  has  shaped  since  their  whole 
naval  policy.  The  character  of  the  American  frigate  of 
that  period  will  more  fully  appear  from  another  compari- 
Bon.  The  North  British,  for  August,  1863,  states,  upon 
the  authority  of  "  James's  N'aval  History,"  the  broadside 
of  a  hundred-gun  ship — the  three-decker,  such  as  Nelson 
fought  with— at  1,260  lbs. 

The  broadside  of  the  United  States  frigate  was  864  lbs., 
more  than  two-thirds  of  that  of  the  English  line-pf-battle 
ship  with  her  one  hundred  guns. 

The  American  and  English  ideas  will  appear  still  more 


458  THE  AMERICAN  NAVY. 

strongly  contrasted  by  another  statement.  According  to 
tlie  IToRTH  British,  in  the  article  alluded  to,  the  English 
ship  of  the  line  in  the  beginning  of  this  century,  in  the 
time  of  ^Nelson,  averaged  about  2,000  tuns  burden,  and 
her  broadside  weighed  1,260  lbs.  E^ow  the  Warrior's  tun- 
nage  is  more  than  6,000  tuns,  and  the  weight  of  her  broad- 
side is  no  more  than  1,612  lbs.  The  American  frigate 
Minnesota  is  of  3,300  tuns  burden,  but  the  weight  of  her 
broadside  is  about  2,500  lbs. 

One  of  our  sloops,  like  the  Brooklyn,  throws  a  broad- 
side equal  in  weight,  and  far  more  than  equal  in  efficiency, 
to  that  of  the  old  English  hundred-gun  ship.  The  dif- 
ference between  a  British  and  American  ship  is  again 
illustrated  by  the  American  I^Tew  Ironsides  and  the  Eng- 
lish Warrior,  both  iron-clads,  and  representative  ships. 
The  American  frigate  is  3,400  tuns  burden,  the  Warrior 
a  little  more  than  6,000  tuns.  The  American  ship  throws 
a  broadside  about  equal  in  weight  to  that  of  the  British 
vessel,  which  is  nearly  double  her  size ;  and  to  make  the 
American  idea  stand  forth  more  prominent,  the  'New  Iron- 
sides mounts  only  eighteen  guns,  while  the  Warrior  car- 
ries forty. 

Again :  the  turreted  frigate  Roanoke  throws  from  her 
six  guns  a  weight  of  metal,  at  a  broadside,  almost  equal 
to  that  of  the  Warrior  when  using  twenty  guns  on  a  side ; 
and,  if  armed  with  six  fifteen-inch  guns,  as  she  can  be 
if  needed,  her  broadside  from  these  six  cannon  would 
exceed  that  of  the  Warrior's  guns  by  at  least  one  thousand 
pounds. 

These  facts  present,  very  clearly,  the  peculiarities  of 
American  ships  and  American  artillery,  and  the  diffiBrence 
between  them  and  the  vessels  and  cannon  of  Europe. 
They  show  that  the  American  mind  is  not  working  at 
random  in  regard  to  our  weapons  of  war,  but  in  accord- 
ance with  original  and  clearly-defined  ideas.  The  second 
era  in  the  construction  of  the  United  States  navy  began 
after  the  war  of  1812-15,  in  which  an  efibrt  was  made  to 
follow  the  European  model  of  the  three-deck  line-of-battle 


THE  AMBRICAlSr    NAVY.  459 

ship.  It  resulted  in  those  failures  wMcli  are  now  used  for 
receiving-ships,  such  as  the  Ohio,  the  North  Carolina,  the 
Pennsylvania,  and  the  Vermont,  which  are  utterly  worth- 
less, except  as  a  sort  of  floating  warehouse.  The  Ameri- 
can mind  does  not  work  successfully  in  European  harness. 
In  the  third  era  there  was  a  return  to  the  American  idea, 
and  it  produced  such  frigates  as  the  Minnesota,  the  Wabash, 
the  Merrimac,  the  Hoanoke,  and  the  IS'iagara.  They  were 
by  no  means  perfect  ships.  They  failed  in  speed ;  but  still 
they  were  the  most  formidable  frigates  afloat.  The  direc- 
tion which  American  improvement  has  taken  is  indicated 
by  the  Minnesota,  whose  battery  of  fifty  guns  throws  more 
than  twice  the  weight  of  shot,  at  a  broadside,  that  was 
thrown  by  the  hundred-gun  ship  of  Nelson's  time,  while 
the  British  Warrior,  three  times  the  size  of  the  old  three- 
decker,  uses  less  than  400  lbs.  more  shot  than  the  "  old 
liner"  in  a  broadside. 

The  French  and  English  hundred  and  hundred-and- 
twenty-gun  ships,  that  were  fought  at  Trafalgar  and  the 
Nile,  would  be  greatly  overmatched  by  such  a  frigate  aa 
the  Minnesota,  with  her  heavy  guns,  and  firing  shell  hori- 
zontally, as  the  Russians  did  at  Sinope,  and  by  which  the 
Turkish  fleet  was  destroyed. 

The  fourth  era  in  the  creation  of  the  navy  of  the  United 
States  has  been  marked  by  the  introduction  of  three  new 
classes  of  ships:  the  swift,  heavily  armed,  wooden  cor- 
vette, such  as  the  Lackawanna,  the  Canandaigua,  and  the 
Sacramento;  the  still  swifter,  double-bowed  steamers,  like 
the  Sassacus  and  the  Eutaw,  and  the  various  forms  of  iron- 
clads, of  which  the  Monitors  are  the  most  numerous. 
This  period  has  also  been  distinguished  by  a  new  form  of 
American  cannon;  and  these  new  ships  and  this  new 
artillery  have,  it  is  believed,  revolutionized  the  art  of  war, 
both  by  sea  and  land.  The  reasons  for  such  a  belief  will 
appear  from  what  follows.  As  has  been  stated  in  a 
previous  chapter,  France  and  England  began  the  construc- 
tion of  iron-clad  vessels  soon  after  the  close  of  the  Crim- 
ean war — ^France  in  1858,  and  England  somewhat  later. 


460  THE  AMERICAN    NAVY. 

The  general  character  of  these  ships  has  been  already  de- 
scribed. The  rebel  leaders,  in  preparing  for  rebellion,  had 
made  themselves  familiar  with  these  operations  in  Europe, 
and,  almost  immediately  after  the  war  had  begun,  turned 
their  attention  to  the  preparation  of  a  formidable  iron-clad 
ship. 

They  had  seized  the  most  important  navy-yard  of  the 
country — ^that  of  Norfolk — ^though  not  before  the  vessels 
lying  there  had  been  scuttled  or  set  on  fire  and  sunk. 
Among  these  was  the  frigate  Merrimac,  of  the  class  of  the 
Minnesota,  of  about  3,200  tuns  burden.  This  ship  the 
Confederates  soon  raised,  and  proceeded  to  convert  her 
into  an  iron-clad  battery  and  ram.  In  size  she  was  about 
equal  to  the  I^ew  Ironsides,  to  which  ship  she  bore  some 
general  external  resemblance.  There  was  nothing  original 
in  her  construction.  Her  armor  formed  an  angle  with  her 
sides,  covering  her  deck  and  guns  after  the  manner  of  a 
roof,  according  to  a  plan  which  had  been  proposed  but 
not  adopted  in  England,  at  least  in  her  first-class  vessels. 

In  the  absence  of  official  information,  the  exact  form  and 
thickness  of  her  armor  can  not  be  stated.  It  has  been 
variously  described,  some  believing  it  to  have  been  formed 
of  railroad  iron,  and  others  stating  that  she  was  mailed 
with  plates,  four  inches  or  four  and  a  half  inches  in  thick- 
ness. One  important  test  was,  however,  applied,  which 
showed  more  conclusively  her  powers  of  resistance  than 
any  measuring  the  thickness  of  iron  plates  could  have 
done.  She  was  attacked  with  nine-inch,  ten-inch,  and 
eleven-inch  guns,  their  shot  weighing,  respectively,  about 
100  lbs.,  128  lbs.,  and  169  lbs.  The  heaviest  guns  of  the 
Minnesota,  the  Cumberland,  and  the  Congress  made  no 
impression  upon  her,  and,  although  the  Monitor  engaged 
her  for  ^ve  hours  with  eleven-inch  guns,  and,  at  times, 
only  a  few  yards  from  her  side,  it  is  not  known,  certainly, 
that  her  armor  was  once  penetrated,  although  compelled 
to  haul  off  and  signal  for  assistance,  her  hull  shattered  by 
the  smashing  power  of  the  heavy  shot  that  yet  did  not 
pass  through  her  armor.    This  proves  that  she  was  a  ves- 


"  THE  AMERICAN    NAVY.  461 

« 

sel  of  the  most  formidable  character,  and  that  her  mail 
was  equal  in  resisting  shot  to  that  of  any  French  or  Eng- 
lish vessel  which  had  then  been  built.  Her  destructive 
power  was  sufficiently  shown,  by  her  shattering  and  sink- 
ing, in  a  few  minutes,  with  perfect  ease,  and  with  not  the 
slightest  inconvenience  to  herself  so  far  as  is  known,  two 
heavily  armed  wooden  ships.  She  destroyed  them  as 
readily  as  if  they  had  been  bark  canoes,  and  no  one  doubts 
that  the  Minnesota  would  have  shared  the  same  fate,  had 
the  Merrimac  been  suffered  to  approach  her.  The  wooden 
navies  of  the  world  were  virtually  sunk  with  the  Congress 
and  Cumberland,  and  from  that  time  it  was  evident  that 
the  ships  which  were  to  rule  the  seas  in  future  were  yet 
to  be  built.  The  ocean-scepter  of  Britain  was  broken  by 
the  blow  which  crushed  in  the  sides  of  the  Cumberland, 
and  all  nations  were  to  start  anew  in  the  creation  of  na- 
vies.   England,  said  the  Times,  had  but  two  ships. 

The  morning  after  the  destruction  of  the  Congress  and 
Cumberland  was  the  most  hopeful  one,  and  the  proudest 
one,  that  ever  rose  on  the  slaveholding  Confederacy.  They 
seemed  to  have  a  war-engine  capable  of  destroying  with 
ease  the  whole  American  navy,  and  of  entering  any  har- 
bor, of  capturing  or  burning  all  our  sea-coast  cities.  If 
the  Merrimac  was  indeed  a  sea-boat,  all  this  was  really 
within  reach  of  the  rebels,  so  far  as  then  was  known.  It 
is  believed  that  nothing  could  have  prevented  her,  if  op- 
posed only  by  our  wooden  ships,  or  our  forts  as  they  then 
were,  from  reaching  "Washington,  Philadelphia,  or  New 
York. 

Had  she  succeeded  in  this,  it  probably  is  not  too  much 
to  say,  that  the  cause  of  the  Union  would  have  been  lost. 
The  Christians  of  the  country  will  never  cease  to  believe 
that  it  was  the  special  interposition  of  God  which  brought 
the  Monitor  to  the  scene  of  action  just  in  the  hour  of  the 
country's  greatest  need,  and  put  an  end  to  the  career  of 
the  sea-giant  which  threatened  to  crush  us  at  a  blow. 

The  Merrimac  had  settled,  conclusively,  the  helplessness 
of  a  wooden  ship,  or  squadron  of  ships,  when  attacked  by 


462  THE  AMERICAN    NAVY. 

an  iron-clad.  This  was  a  mailed  ship,  patterned  in  gen- 
eral after  the  European  model,  differing  mainly  in  her 
sloping  armor ;  but  the  next  day  she  was  met  by  a  war 
ship  such  as  the  world  never  saw  before,  a  fresh  invention 
of  the  genius  of  the  West,  a  hurried,  rough,  imperfect 
embodying  of  an  idea  destined  to  work  another  revolution 
in  the  structure  of  ships  and  the  methods  of  naval  war. 
The  reader  should  remember  the  size  of  the  Merrimac  in 
order  to  judge  correctly  the  combat  which  followed.  Her 
tunnage  was  more  than  twice  as  great  as  that  of  the 
frigates  Constitution  and  United  States,  with  which  the 
victories  of  1812-15  were  won,  and  almost  twice  as  great  as 
that  of  the  hundred-gun  ships  of  the  time  of  IN'elson.  She 
ranked  with  the  most  formidable  iron-clads  of  Europe,  for 
she  was  completely  mailed,  and  her  angulated  armor  was 
thought  to  give  her  an  advantage  even  over  these. 

The  next  morning  after  the  terrible  feat  with  which  she 
had  startled  the  country,  she  came  forth  for  the  purpose 
of  destroying  the  Minnesota,  and  then  she  intended,  as 
was  thought,  to  proceed  at  once  to  Washington  and  the 
Northern  cities. 

As  she  approached  the  Minnesota,  her  progress  was  in- 
terrupted by  a  strange-looking  something,  no  one  on  board 
the  frigate  knew  what.  "A  cheese-box  on  a  raft,"  they 
called  the  queer  little  boat,  raft,  or  canoe,  or  whatever  it 
might  be.  The  huge,  mailed  monster  seemed  at  first  dis- 
posed to  take  no  notice  of  this  diminutive  craft,  and  steered 
for  the  Minnesota.  But  the  first  shot  from  her  small 
adversary  was  a  startling  proof  of  power. 

The  practiced  ear  was  taught  by  that  report  that  the 
new-comer  had  at  least  one  formidable  gun.  The  Merri- 
mac stopped  her  engines  and  paused  to  observe  her  little 
enemy.  It  came  straight  on,  showing  no  sign  of  fear, 
indicating  a  wish  to  come  at  once  to  close  action.  The 
first  shot  which  struck  the  Merrimac  showed  her  ofiicers 
that  the  Monitor  was  throwing  projectiles  of  unusual 
weight,  and  created  some  anxiety,  which  was  by  no  means 
lessened  when  they  found  that  their  own  broadside  made 


THE   AMERICAN    NAVT.  463 

no  impression  upon  the  little  turret,  which  hurled  forth 
shot  in  return,  whose  stroke  made  the  huge  ship  shudder. 
Fearing  for  the  result,  at  length,  the  Merrimac  undertook 
to  do  what  many  think  so  easily  done — ^to  run  the  Monitor 
down  and  sink  her.  She  failed,  but  in  the  attempt  exposed 
herself  more  than  before  to  the  Monitor's  shot,  while  the 
Monitor  was  uninjured.  This  first  battle  of  the  iron-clads 
continued  for  ^ve  hours,  and  then  the  Merrimac,  appar- 
ently much  injured,  drew  ofi:',  signaled  for  aid,  and  was 
accompanied  by  some  steam-tugs  back  to  Norfolk.  This 
was  the  end  of  her  career.  She  was  shortly  after  blown 
up,  rather  than  risk  her  in  another  action. 

In  its  bearings  upon  naval  war,  the  structure  of  war 
ships,  and  the  destinies  of  this  country  and  Europe,  this 
may  be  considered  the  most  important  naval  battle  of 
modern  times.  The  ships  engaged  in  it  so  far  represented 
the  navies  of  the  world,  that  safe  general  inferences  could 
be  drawn  from  it  in  regard  to  the  future. 

The  wooden  navies  of  Europe  and  the  United  States 
were  virtually  on  trial  there,  through  the  Minnesota,  the 
Cumberland,  and  the  Congress.  The  iron-clads  of  France 
and  England  were  so  nearly  represented  by  the  Merrimac, 
that  an  opinion  formed  of  her  would  equally  apply  to  them 
with  very  little  modification ;  while  the  Monitor  presented 
the  rude  germ  of  the  turreted  navy  which  the  United 
States  has  constructed  since. 

The  result  was,  that  while  the  wooden  ships  were  as 
egg-shells  before  the  iron-plated  one,  the  little  turreted 
vessel,  with  her  two  heavy  guns,  defeated  and  drove  ofi*, 
with  no  injury  to  herself,  a  first-class  iron-clad  broadside 
frigate,  armed  with  the  heaviest  guns  then  known  to 
European  war. 

This  combat  not  only  saved  our  own  navy  and  our 
cause,  but  it  prevented  the  rebels  from  constructing  one, 
by  destroying  the  basis  of  it ;  and  showed  England  and 
France  that  the  Americans  could  build  a  ship  in  three 
months  which  would  be  a  formidable  antagonist  for  their 
most  powerful  frigates.    To  suppose  that  this  fact  had  no 


464  THE   AMERICAN  NAVY. 

bearing  upon  tlieir  policy,  is  to  believe  them  less  prudent 
than  usual.  The  Monitor  did,  indeed,  admonish  Europe 
that  intervention  would  be  dangerous.  Persistent  efforts 
are  made  to  show  that  the  Monitors  are  all  inefficient,  an 
almost  worthless  class  of  ships,  not  worthy  to  be  compared 
with  the  broadside  frigates  of  England  and  France,  and 
that  the  government  is  merely  wasting  the  people's  money 
in  their  construction. 

Before  entering  into  a  particular  discussion  of  the  pecu- 
liarities, merits,  and  defects  of  the  Monitors,  it  may  be  well 
to  offer  a  few  suggestions  in  regard  to  this  now  famous 
battle  in  Hampton  Roads.  First,  let  it  be  asked,  How 
would  that  fight  have  terminated  had  the  Merrimac  en- 
countered, instead  of  the  Monitor,  a  frigate  the  exact 
counterpart  of  the  English  Warrior?  The  Merrimac  was 
plated,  it  is  said,  all  round ;  the  Warrior  only  for  two- 
thirds  of  her  length.  Considering  the  terrible  effect  of  the 
shells  of  the  Merrimac  upon  the  Congress  and  Cumberland, 
"  converting  them,"  as  an  English  reviewer  says,  "  into 
helpless,  burning  charnel-houses,"  how  would  the  Warrior- 
built  frigate  have  escaped  a  similar  shattering  in  her  un- 
protected bow  and  stern  ?  The  Warrior  is  armed  with 
68-pounder  smooth-bores  and  twelve  100-pounder  Arm- 
strong rifles.  The  batteries  of  the  Cumberland  and 
Minnesota  threw  heavier  shot  than  these,  and  made  no 
impression  upon  the  Merrimac ;  while  the  shot  of  the 
Monitor  weighed  169  pounds,  and,  by  some  statements, 
180  pounds,  and  these  were  fired  often  at  the  shortest 
possible  range,  and  yet  it  is  not  known  that  the  frigate's 
armor  was  pierced. 

What  reason  is  there,  then,  for  supposing  that  such  a 
ship  as  the  Warrior  could  have  seriously  injured  the 
Merrimac  ?  and  how  much  reason  we  have,  on  the  con- 
trary, to  think  that  the  rebel  frigate  would,  with  her 
heavier  armament  and  shell-guns,  have  been  victorious ! 

Our  own  broadside  frigate,  the  New  Ironsides,  armed  as 
she  now  is,  would,  in  all  probability,  capture  or  destroy 
such  a  ship  as  the  Merrimac ;  but  it  would  be  with  far 


THE   AMERICAN  NAYT?.  465 

greater  risk  than  was  run  by  th.e  Monitor,  because  her 
ends,  like  those  of  the  Warrior,  are  not  protected  by 
armor.  At  Charleston,  shells  pierced  these  unshielded 
parts  at  the  distance  of  a  mile ;  and,  in  close  action  with 
the  Merrimac,  she  might,  perhaps,  have  been  seriously  in- 
jured, or  destroyed  even,  by  her  shells.  The  conclusion 
seems  inevitable,  that,  for  the  purpose  intended,  the  little 
Monitor  was  better  adapted  than  any  other  ship  then 
afloat. 

Indeed,  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  any  other  vessel  then 
in  existence  could  have  stopped  and  driven  back  into  Nor- 
folk this  formidable  iron-clad  of  the  rebels.  But  suppose 
that  one  of  the  new  Monitors  had  encountered  the  Mer- 
rimac with  fifteen-inch  instead  of  eleven-inch  guns.  It  is 
now  known,  both  from  the  fate  of  the  Atlanta  and  sub- 
sequent experiments,  that  a  few  minutes  would  have  suf- 
ficed to  disable  the  frigate.  While  the  eleven  shot  did  not 
pierce  the  Atlanta's  armor,  the  fifteen-inch  gun  sent  its> 
shot  crashing  through,  and  with  such  a  shock,  that  th& 
crew  of  the  rebel  ship  could  not  be  brought  back  to  their 
guns. 

It  is  not,  then,  exaggeration  to  say,  as  the  Charleston 
correspondent  of  the  London  Times  has  done,  that  the 
Americans,  since  the  rebellion  broke  out,  have  twice 
revolutionized  the  art  of  war — once  on  the  sea,  with  the 
Monitors  and  their  enormous  guns ;  and  once  on  the  land, 
with  their  new  rifled  artillery. 

The  invention  of  the  Monitor  form  of  war  vessel  and  the 
heavy  cannon  have  saved  the  country,  at  least  for  the  pres- 
ent, from  intervention  and  foreign  war ;  for  they  have 
rendered  it  certain  that  no  ship  known,  that  can  cross  the 
ocean,  could  withstand  an  attack  from  our  small  Monitors 
even,  armed  with  fifteen-inch  guns,  or  our  heaviest  rifled 
ones.  Experiments  already  made  leave  no  doubt  on  this 
point. 

The  extraordinary  performance  of  the  small  nondescript 
craft,  that  saved  from  destruction  our  finest  wooden  frigate^ 
and  beat  off  the  first  iron-clad  frigate  that  ever  went  into 
30 


466  THE  AME^IICAN  NAVY. 

action,  determined  tlie  government  to  rely  mainly  upon 
this  class  of  ship  for  the  present  defense  of  our  harbors,- 
and  for  the  reduction  of  the  sea-coast  fortifications  in  the 
hands  of  the  rebels.  As  large  sums  of  money  have  been 
spent  upon  this  new  fleet,  and  as  severe  censure  has  been 
east  upon  the  ^N'avy  Department  on  this  account,  it  is  im- 
portant that  Americans  should  fully  understand  what  the 
peculiarities  are  of  those  ships  which  the  government  has 
made  so  prominent  in  the  creation  of  our  navy. 

It  will  be  seen  that  Mr.  Ericsson,  in  his  Monitor  ship, 
has  aimed,  first,  to  carry  out  the  American  idea  of  the 
heaviest  possible  battery  in  the  smallest  possible  space; 
and  then  to  construct  an  iron-clad  vessel  with  the  least 
possible  space  exposed  to  the  enemy's  shot,  and  so  render 
it  invulnerable  by  thicker  armor  than  a  broadside  ship  can 
carry.  As  an  example,  the  side  armor  of  the  Dictator  is 
eleven  inches  thick,  and  her  turret  is  fifteen  inches  thick. 
She  is,  consequently,  invulnerable  to  any  shot  yet  known, 
but  no  broadside  ship  could  swim  a  moment  cased  all  round 
with  such  an  armor  as  that. .  Mr.  Ericsson  then  places  two 
Ikeavy  guns  in  a  revolving  turret,  whose  walls,  in  the  first 
Monitor,  were  nine  inches  thick.  This  turret  is  placed 
upon  an  open  deck,  so  that  the  guns,  as  the  turret  revolves, 
can  be  fired  in  any  direction.  This  deck  is  sunk  almost 
to  a  level  with  the  water ;  and  the  small  space  above  the 
water-line  can  be  so  heavily  armored  as  to  be  impenetrable, 
without  destroying  the  buoyancy  of  the  ship.  In  action, 
then,  the  Monitor  ship  presents  a  very  small  mark  to  an 
enemy's  guns — only  her  turret,  nine  feet  high,  and  some 
twenty  or  twenty-two  feet  in  diameter,  and  a  very  narrow 
line  of  her  side,  just  at  the  water's  edge.  These  ships,  in 
addition  to  the  battle  with  the  Merrimac,  have  been  ex- 
posed, at  short  range,  to  the  heaviest  artillery  and  steel-shot 
at  Charleston,  and  no  shot  has  yet  penetrated  either  a  tur- 
ret or  a  side.  That  they  should  be  injured  by  a  fire  which 
would  have  sunk  any  other  ship  afloat,  was  a  matter  of 
course ;  but  no  gun,  rifled  or  smooth-bore,  which  the  rebels 
jet  have  tried,  with  all  the  skill  of  England  at  their  dis- 


THE  AMERICAN  NAVT.  467 

posal,  has  sent  a  shot  through  a  turret  or  the  side  of  a 
Monitor. 

Plates  have  been  cracked  and  bent,  but,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  two  or  three  casualties  from  bolt-heads,  (now  guarded 
against),  the  Monitors  have  protected  their  crews  from  shot 
under  a  fire  which  no  other  vessels  were  ever  exposed  to, 
and  which  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  any  other  ships 
afloat  could  endure. 

In  the  creation  of  the  new  navy,  the  government  has 
constructed — or  is  building,  at  least — four  classes  of  Moni- 
tors, besides  other  forms  of  iron-clad  vessels,  both  for  ocean 
service  and  for  our  rivers.  A  brief  description  of  one  of 
each  kind  will  enable  the  reader  to  judge  of  the  present 
efficiency  and  probable  future  of  the  American  iron-clads ; 
and  this,  with  an  account  of  our  new  wooden  ships,  will 
show  what  claim  we  have  to  be  considered  a  first-class 
naval  power,  and  whether  we  shall  be  able  hereafter  to 
defend  our  commerce  abroad  and  our  cities  at  home. 

The  small  Monitor,  which  encountered  and  beat  the 
Merrimac,  the  pioneer  ship  of  her  class,  was  truly  an  ex- 
tempore vessel,  hurriedly  built,  to  meet  the  emergency 
which  the  rebels  were  preparing  for  the  country  at  ITor- 
folk ;  and  the  great  value  of  the  principles  upon  which  she 
was  constructed  is  shown  in  the  victory  which  was  won 
over  so  formidable  an  adversary. 

The  following  facts  in  regard  to  the  Monitors  are  derived 
from  an  article  in  the  Scientific  American,  one  of  the  best 
authorities  upon  such  subjects  in  this  or  any  other  country. 
The  dimensions  of  the  original  Monitor  were  as  follows : 

Extreme  length  on  deck,  over  the  armor,    .        .        173  feet. 

Extreme  beam  on  deck,  over  the  armor,         .  .      41  feet  6  inches. 

Depth, ...  12  feet. 

Length  of  iron  hull,  .         .         .        . '       .  .127  feet. 

Width  of  iron  hull,       .        .        .        •'       .        .  36  feet  2  inches. 

Projection  of  armor-shelf  forward,  ....      14  feet. 
Projection  of  armor-shelf  aft,       .        .        .        .  32  feet. 

The  thickness  of  the  side  armor  was  ^yq,  inches,  above 
the  water-line,  diminishing  first  to  four  inches  and  finally 


468  THE  AMERICAN  NAVY. 

to  three  inelies  below  the  water.  The  whole  armor  ahove 
the  water  was  two  feet  three  inches  of  wood,  and  five 
inches  of  iron.  The  turret  was  made  of  eight  thicknesses 
of  one-inch  iron  plates.  Its  inside  diameter  was  twenty 
feet,  and  its  hight  nine  feet.  Her  armament  was  two 
eleven-inch  guns,  laid  side  by  side,  and  they  revolved  with 
the  turret.  Such  was  the  diminutive  aflair  which  con^ 
quered  a  first-class  iron-clad  broadside  frigate.  Her  suc^ 
cess  was  due  to  three  things :  the  invulnerable  turret  which 
shielded  her  guns  and  crew,  the  great  weight  of  her  shot, 
and  the  extremely  small  surface — little  more  than  her  tur- 
ret— exposed  to  the  enemy's  shot.  Her  defects  were  many, 
but  they  did  not  affect  the  main  principles  of  her  construc- 
tion. She  was  slow,  but  there  is  no  good  reason  why  a 
vessel  built  on  the  Monitor  principle  should  not  be  a  swift 
one,  and  the  Puritan  and  Dictator  are  expected  to  be  very 
fast. 

She  was  not  a  good  sea-boat,  nor  a  safe  one.  The 
shelf  or  deck  which  supported  her  armor  projected  over  the 
hull,  like  the  guards  of  a  Western  river  steamboat;  and 
this  projection,  being  thirty-two  feet  aft  and  fourteen  feet 
forward,  strained  her  in  a  heavy  sea,  and  finally  separated 
the  deck  from  the  hull  in  a  storm,  and  she  foundered  at 
sea. 

Notwithstanding  these  serious  faults,  she  had  settled  the 
value  of  the  principles  of  her  construction,  and  the  govern- 
ment at  once  determined  to  build  nine  more  according  to 
the  general  plan,  with  such  changes  as  experience  had  sug- 
gested. The  nine  vessels  of  this  new  Monitor  fleet  were 
modeled  alike,  and  their  dimensions  are  as  follows : 

Length  on  deck,    .,•.,•.  200  feet. 

Width  on  deck, ,        ,      46  feet. 

Depth  on  deck, 12  feet. 

Length  of  hull  proper, 159  feet. 

Width  of  hull  proper, 37  feet  8  inch€ 

Overhang  of  armor-shelf  forward,  •        •        .        .16  feet. 
Overhang  of  armor-shelf  aft,        .         .        ,        •  25  feet. 

Tunnage, 844  tuns. 

Draught  of  water, 10  feet. 


THE  AMERICAN  NAVY.  469 

The  side  armor  is  composed  of  five  one-incli  plates. 
The  thickness  of  the  armor  and  its  wood  backing  is  three 
feet  eight  inches.  The  deck  is  plated  with  two  thicknesses 
of  half-inch  iron.  The  turret  is  eleven  inches  thick,  made 
of  eleven  plates  one  inch  thick.  It  is  nine  feet  high,  and 
the  inside  diameter  is  twenty  feet.  The  armament  was 
originally  intended  to  be  two  fifteen-inch  guns.  But  this 
now  varies :  some  carry  one  fifteen-inch  and  one  eleven- 
inch  gun,  and  others  one  fifteen-inch  smooth-bore  and  one 
Parrott  rifle,  a  150  or  a  200-pounder.  These  are  the  ships 
which  were  engaged  at  Charleston. 

Still  another  fleet  of  nine  are,  at  this  time,  (March, 
1864),  about  ready  for  use.  They  vary  little  from  those 
last  described,  except  that  they  are  about  one-fourth  larger, 
being  about  225  feet  long  and  of  about  1,000  tuns  burden. 
The  projection  of  the  armor-shelf  is  less,  and  the  vessels 
are  expected  to  have  greater  speed,  and  it  is  also  believed 
that  they  will  be  good  and  safe  sea-boats. 

In  addition  to  these,  some  twenty  Monitors  of  less 
draught  are  under  way,  which,  in  other  respects,  are  sim- 
ilar to  the  last  described,  being  225  feet  long  and  25  feet 
wide.     They  are  intended  to  be  fast  boats. 

Besides  these,  there  is  another  class  of  Monitor  ships, 
now  nearly  finished,  diftering,  in  some  particular,  from 
those  already  mentioned.  They  are  much  larger,  some  of 
them  being  nearly  1,600  tuns  burden.  Their  side  armor 
is  ten  inches  thick,  and  the  thickness  of  the  turrets  is 
fifteen  inches.     Some  of  these  have  two  turrets. 

In  the  frigate  Roanoke  there  is  a  combination  of  the 
turrcted  and  the  broadside  ship.  She  is  of  the  same  class 
as  the  Merrimac.  Her  upper  works  were  taken  oft',  her 
sides  plated  all  round  with  iron  four  and  five-eighths  inches 
thick  in  the  central  portion  of  the  ship,  and  somewhat 
thinner,  as  is  stated,  at  the  bow  and  stern.  Upon  her  deck 
are  placed  three  revolving  turrets,  of  the  Ericsson  form ; 
and  in  these  she  carries  six  guns — ^two  fifteen-inch,  two 
eleven-inch,  and  two  150-pounder  rifles.  The  weight  of 
her  broadside,  as  at  present  armed,  is  about  1,500  pounds. 


470  THE   AMERICAN  NAVY. 

But  she  can  carry  six  fifleen-incb  guns  if  necessary,  and  then 
the  weight  of  her  broadside  would  be  about  2,500  pounds. 
She  is  said  to  be  a  slow  ship,  and  it  seems  not  probable  that 
her  peculiar  form  will  be  adopted  in  the  construction  of  new 
vessels,  although  she  has  never  been  tried  in  action. 

The  Dictator  and  the  Puritan  represent  still  another 
class  of  Monitors,  which  are  intended  to  be  swift  sea-going 
ships ;  and,  if  successful — of  which  no  doubt  is  entertained, 
except  in  regard  to  their  speed — ^they  will  be  the  most 
formidable  ships  of  our  navy,  and  absolutely  invulnerable 
to  any  artillery  yet  in  service  in  Europe.  These  two  ships 
are  so  nearly  alike,  in  general  form  and  construction,  that 
a  description  of  the  Dictator,  copied  from  the  New  York 
Tribune,  will  answer  for  the  Puritan,  except  that  the 
Puritan  is  fifty  feet  longer  than  the  Dictator,  and  will  have 
two  turrets.  In  other  respects,  the  ships  are,  in  general, 
alike. 

"  It  having  been  frequently  stated  that  the  Dictator  is 
an  ocean  iron-clad,  the  impression  prevails  that  she  re- 
sembles the  New  Ironsides  and  other  vessels  built  for  the 
purpose  of  going  to  sea.  This  is  not  so.  The  Dictator 
has  none  of  the  paraphernalia  of  such  ocean  vessels  as  we 
are  in  the  habit  of  looking  at  in  our  harbors.  She  has 
none  of  the  tall  bulwarks,  no  masts,  no  rigging,  no  cap- 
stan on  deck — nothing,  in  fact,  that  looks  like  an  ordinary 
ship.  A  long-armed  man  could  almost  dip  his  hands  into 
the  water  from  her  deck. 

"  The  dimensions  of  the  hull  of  the  vessel  are  as  fol- 
lows:  Extreme  length  over  all,  314  feet.  The  aft  ovei 
hang  being  thirty-one  feet,  and  forward  overhang  thirteei 
it  leaves  260  feet  between  perpendiculars.  Extremi 
breadth  fifty,  and  depth  twenty -two  and  a  half  feet.  Un-j 
like  the  original  Monitor,  and  the  Monitors  that  are  no'' 
in  course  of  construction,  the  Dictator  is  almost  exclusively 
iron — ^her  frames,  beams,  etc.,  being  of  that  metal.  A 
person  looking  at  her  in  the  river  can  form  no  idea  of  her 
appearance  when  she  is  completely  out  of  water.    K  an 


THE  AMERICAN  NAVY.  471 


ordinary  ship  were  lifted  up,  and  an  immense  shelf  of 
eleven  feet  of  iron  placed  on  the  top  of  her  deck,  over- 
hjaj^ging  for  a  space  of  some  four  feet  on  each  side,  she 
Wciuld  resemble  the  Dictator.  Every  frame  and  beam  is 
listened  in  the  most  secure  manner ;  and  we  believe  the 
bolts  were  all  put  in  red-hot,  to  render  them  sufficiently 
tight.  The  frames  are  put  together  in  the  same  manner 
as  those  of  the  Montauk  and  Passaic,  but  they  are  much 
more  formidable,  some  parts  of  them  being  double.  The 
skin  of  the  ship — that  is,  the  covering  of  the  frames — is 
of  wood,  put  on  in  slabs  lengthwise,  each  being  about 
fourteen  and  a  half  inches  square.  These  wooden  slabs 
are  fastened  to  the  iron  frame  with  screw  bolts,  which 
have  no  nuts,  thus  rendering  it  impossible  for  any  such 
occurrence  to  take  place  as  that  by  which  the  lamented  Cap- 
tain Rogers  lost  his  life.  This  wooden  skin  is  no  less  than 
three  feet  six  inches  in  thickness.  The  magnitude  of  this 
surface  can  only  be  understood  when  we  state  that  the  hull 
of  an  ordinary  European  steamer  does  not  measure  more 
than  eighteen  to  fifty  inches  in  thickness ;  so  that,  without 
the  outside  armor  at  all,  the  hull  of  the  Dictator  is  nearly 
twice  as  thick  as  that  of  the  Persia.  Both  forward  and 
affc  there  are  inserted  in  these  wooden  slabs  immense  blocks 
of  iron,  to  make  them  still  more  formidable  and  powerful. 
The  length  of  the  hull,  in  the  case  of  this  vessel,  is  the 
entire  length  of  the  ship,  as  a  man  can  stand  on  the  ex- 
treme end  of  the  bow  and  stern.  Taking  into  account  the 
usual  slope  of  the  sea,  the  Dictator  could  not  be  seen  four 
miles  off. 

"  The  armor  of  the  original  Monitor  consisted  of  four 
and  a  half  inches  of  iron,  laid  on  in  single  plates,  each 
one  inch  thick.  That  of  the  Warrior  consisted  of  four  and 
a  half  inches  of  iron,  laid  on  in  a  solid  slab  like  our  own 
iron-clad  frigate  Eoanoke.  The  French  frigate  La  Gloire 
had  also  four  and  a  half  inches  of  iron  laid  on  in  a  solid 
||  slab.  IN'ow,  the  Dictator  has  on  her  sides  above  eleven 
inches  of  iron,  and  ^ve  inches  of  this  is  in  one  solid  beam, 
somewhat  like  the  Warrior,  the  La  Gloire,  and  the  Roan- 


472  THE  AMEEICAN    NAVY. 

oke,  except  that  the  plates  of  the  latter  were  in  very  large 
slabs,  while  those  of  the  Dictator  are  in  beams  five  by 
three  inches.  Over  these  five-inch  blocks  of  iron  are  six 
one-inch  plates  of  iron;  making  altogether  an  armor  of 
eleven  inches  of  iron,  the  same  dimensions  as  the  armor 
of  a  turret  of  the  original  Monitor,  the  Passaic,  Montauk, 
etc.  The  armor  begins  at  the  deck  and  goes  down  only 
six  feet,  which  takes  it  about  four  feet  below  water;  so 
that  the  deck  of  the  ocean  iron-clad  Dictator  will  only  be 
about  two  feet  over  water.  Below  this  armor  there  is 
twenty-two  feet  of  the  ship,  only  two  feet  of  which  is  cov- 
ered by  the  eleven  inches  of  iron  mail.  There  are,  there- 
fore, eighteen  and  a  half  feet  of  the  hull  which  has  only 
a  skin  on  of  one-inch  iron  plate.  The  weight  of  the  armor 
is  about  ^ve  hundred  and  twenty-five  tuns — the  burden  of 
a  pretty  large-sized  steamer.  At  six  cents  a  pound,  the 
armor  would  cost  about  $63,000,  without  workmanship. 

"  There  will  be  but  one  turret,  of  a  very  improved  pat- 
tern. It  was  originally  intended  to  cover  it  with  twenty- 
four  inches  of  iron,  but  the  perfection  to  which  its 
construction  has  now  been  brought  will  render  fifteen 
inches  sufiolcient.  This  is  four  inches  more  than  the 
armor  of  the  original  Monitor  and  the  Passaic,  and  ten 
inches  more  than  the  armored  sides  of  the  vessels.  The 
magnitude  of  the  different  beams  and  machinery  of  the 
turret  is  immense,  and  it  is  in  this  magnitude,  and  in  its 
improved  pattern,  that  it  chiefly  differs  from  the  old  tur- 
rets. The  apparatus  for  working  the  guns  will  be  of  a 
still  newer  principle  than  any  yet  carried  out.  The  revo- 
lution in  naval  artillery,  caused  by  the  facility  with  which 
four  or  ^ve  men  can  work  the  old  fifteen-inch  gun,  will 
be  made  still  more  startling  when  one  or  two  men  can 
easily  handle  the  immense  pieces  of  ordnance  to  be  placed 
in  the  Dictator.  The  turret  will  be  covered  in  action 
when  necessary.  The  new  bar,  which  was  recently  added 
to  the  turrets  of  the  last  batch  of  iron-clads,  since  the 
disabling  of  the  Passaic,  will  be  adopted  in  the  new  turret 
on  a  much  more  improved  principle.     The  bar  is  sixteen 


THE  AMERICAN    NAVY.  473 

• 

inclies  thick,  and  fastened  on  with  bolts.  The  gear  of  the 
turret  is  difierent  from  that  of  the  other  vessels,  and  is 
much  better.  The  turret  complete  will  weigh  almost  ^ve 
hundred  tuns,  or  thereabout,  being  as  heavy,  almost,  as 
the  entire  armor  of  the  vessel.  It  is  not  on  board  at 
present,  but  will  be  put  in  its  place  immediately,  as  it  is 
completed. 

"  The  ram  is  the  finest  piece  of  mechanism  aboard  the 
ship.  The  ram  proper  is  twenty-two  feet  of  solid  oak  and 
iron ;  unlike  the  Keokuk,  which  protruded  from  the  bot- 
tom of  the  hull  near  the  keel,  this  extends  from  the  top 
of  the  deck,  being,  as  it  were,  an  extension  of  the  entire 
armor  of  the  ship.  Another  advantage  in  this  ram  is,  that 
it  could  be  carried  away  without  any  material  damage  or 
injury  to  the  vessel,  and  without  her  making  water. 

"  The  decks  are  perfectly  clear  of  all  incumbrances,  ex- 
cept the  turret.  The  same  objection  made  to  the  other 
Monitors,  relative  to  their  liability  to  be  injured  by  plung- 
ing shot,  is  valid  in  the  Dictator's  case;  but  it  is  only  just 
to  say,  that,  of  the  iron-clad  vessels  engaged  in  the  attack 
on  Charleston,  none  has  suftered  any  serious  inconvenience 
from  injuries  done  to  the  deck.  It  seems  almost  impossi- 
ble, and  has  proved  so,  that  a  projectile  fired  from  an 
ordinary  boat  could  enter  the  deck.  The  armor  of  the 
deck  consists  of  one  and  a  half  inches  of  iron,  laid  on  in 
two  plates,  in  the  same  manner  as  in  the  other  vessels. 

"  The  main-deck — that  on  which  the  crew  and  officers  are 
to  live — is  a  very  commodious  one,  being  as  high  as  that 
of  any  first-class  sailing  frigate  in  the  navy.  A  man  six 
feet  high,  with  his  hat  on,  can  walk,  without  stooping, 
from  end  to  end  of  it.  Of  course  the  difierent  apartments 
have  not  been  as  yet  arranged,  all  that  sort  of  work  being 
left  to  the  last. 

"  The  ship  is  ventilated  by  three  immense  blowers ;  two 
for  the  use  of  the  vessel  generally,  and  one  for  the  express 
purpose  of  ventilating  the  engine-room.  These  blowers 
are  of  immense  size,  about  seventy-two  inches  by  forty- 
eight  inches.    An  air-trunk,  supplying  a  blower  eight  feet 


474  THE  AMERICAN    NAVT. 

in  diameter,  is  within  about  thirty-five  feet  of  the  stern. 
The  air  to  supply  the  other  blowers  is  drawn  from  the 
top  of  the  turret  and  distributed  through  the  ship. 

"  The  most  untraveled  individual  knows  how  vessels  are 
steered.  '  The  man  at  the  wheel '  has  before  him  a  com- 
pass, the  hands  of  which  point  to  the  different  parts  of 
the  globe.  In  the  iron-clads  this  arrangement  is  imprac- 
ticable, the  needle  refuses  to  do  its  accustomed  business, 
surrounded  by  such  masses  of  iron  as  are  in  each  turret, 
acts  sluggishly,  and  is,  in  fact,  perfectly  useless.  Several 
means  have  been  adopted  to  remedy  this  inconvenience, 
the  most  successful  of  them  being  that  now  in  use.  It  is 
no  other  than  by  the  help  of  a  looking-glass.  The  helms- 
man stands  with  the  wheel  in  his  hands,  and  before  him 
is  a  mirror.  Seven  feet  above  his  head,  situated  in  a  cop- 
per pipe  lifted  above  the  pilot-house,  is  the  compass,  which 
directs  the  course  of  the  vessel.  This  compass  is  so 
arranged  that  the  movement  of  its  hands  is  reflected  in 
the  mirror,  and  thus  will  the  Dictator  be  steered. 

"  The  machinery  of  the  Dictator  is  of  a  more  extensive 
character  than  that  of  any  man-of-war  built  in  this  coun- 
try or  in  Europe.  The  cylinders  will  not  be  less  than  a; 
hundred  inches  in  diameter.  Cylinders  of  these  dimen- 
sions have  never,  we  believe,  been  built  in  this  city,  except 
once  for  a  side-wheel  steamboat  called  the  Petropolis. 
The  cylinders  are  bolted  into  two  massive  wrought-iron 
kelsons,  ten  feet  deep,  and  some  twenty-four  inches  or 
more  in  width.  They  are  both  in  line,  athwart  ships, 
and  have  large  slide  and  expansive  valves,  the  latter  work- 
ing over  the  former.  A  peculiar  feature  of  the  machinery 
is  the  absence  of  guides,  cross-heads,  and  other  cumbrous 
parts.  The  piston,  four  feet  stroke,  has  a  trunk  attached  to 
it.  The  boilers  are  immense,  six  in  number,  and  have  fifty- 
six  furnaces,  and  an  aggregate  grate-surface  of  1,100  feet : 
allowing  twelve  pounds  of  coal  per  square  foot  of  grate- 
surface,  the  vessel  will  require  at  least  one  hundred  and  sev- 
enty-five tuns  of  coal  per  day  of  twenty-four  hours  steaming 
at  full  speed.    The  weight  of  these  boilers  will  be  almost 


THE  AMERICAN    KTAVT.  475 

seventy  tuns  each,  that  is,  four  hundred  and  twenty  tuns 
altogether,  without  water;  so  that  when  they  are  com- 
pleted they  will  weigh  over  seven  hundred  tuns.  The 
cast-iron  in  the  hollers  alone,  at  six  cents  a  pound,  will 
amount  to  $14,000.  The  shaft  is  also  a  gigantic  piece  of 
mechanical  work ;  it  weighs  something  like  thirty-six  tuns, 
the  burden  of  an  average  sloop.  The  propeller  is  a  right- 
handed  true-screw,  twenty-one  and  a  half  feet  in  diameter ; 
has  thirty-four  feet  pitch,  and  weighs  39,000  pounds. 
There  is  no  outboard  bearing  for  the  shaft.  What  piston 
speed  will  be  obtained  from  the  engines  remains  to  be  seen. 
The  propeller  is  in  a  well,  and  can  not  be  struck  by  any 
projectile,  as  a  shot  would  have  to  pass  through  twenty- 
six  feet  of  water  to  strike  it.  The  engines  are  calcu- 
lated to  be  something  in  the  neighborhood  of  5,000-horse 
power. 

"  One  of  the  greatest  difficulties  in  the  way  of  making 
the  iron-clads  permanently  useful  was  that  of  protecting 
the  bottoms  from  the  filth  which  concentrated  there  and 
prevented  them  from  moving.  The  original  Monitor  had 
to  be  towed  from  Fortress  Monroe  to  Washington,  on 
account  of  her  bottoms  being  so  foul.  The  English  frigate 
"Warrior  also  experienced  a  similar  inconvenience,  and  we 
learn  that  some  Monitors  at  present  off  Charleston  are 
very  foul.  All  sorts  of  paints  have  been  tried,  and  all 
with  want  of  success.  The  most  popular  was  a  sort  of 
English  ^  peacock '  paint,  which  was  used  in  some  of  the 
mail  steamers  ;  but  it  did  very  little  good.  On  the  bottom 
of  the  Dictator,  however,  and  on  all  of  our  iron-clads  to 
be  built  henceforward,  and  most  of  the  naval-built  vessels, 
a  successful  remedy  has  been  devised,  which  will  keep 
the  bottoms  perfectly  clear  of  all  filth.  It  is  called  *  ship- 
zinc'  paint,  and  is  perfectly  white  in  color.  Some  thirty 
years  since  a  vessel  was  coated  with  it  in  England;  she 
arrived  here  a  few  weeks  ago,  and  her  bottoms  were  found 
in  perfect  order.  The  government  has  responsible  parties 
furnishing  the  paint,  and  its  purity  can  be  relied  on.  It 
is  confidently  expected  that  a  vessel  so  complete,  with 


476  THE  AMERICAN    NAVY. 

eleven  inclies  of  armor  and  sucli  a  heavy  battery,  will 
prove  herself  the  Dictator  of  the  ocean." 

This  description  is  the  latest  given  of  this  ship,  it  hav- 
ing been  written  at  the  time  when  she  was  launched. 
Her  armament,  it  is  said,  will  be  two  thirteen-inch  wrought- 
iron  guns,  made  after  the  patterns  furnished  by  Mr.  Erics- 
son himself. 

The  Dunderberg  is  another  monster  iron-clad,  much 
larger  than  either  the  Puritan  or  the  Dictator,  and  very 
diflerent  in  form,  size,  and  general  construction  from  any 
previously  described.  This  is  being  built  at  the  ship-yard 
of  W.  H.  Webb,  l!^ew  York,  and  will  soon  be  ready  for 
launching.  The  following  description  will  give  a  general 
idea  of  this  powerful  ship.  It  is  copied  from  the  Scien- 
tific American,  of  March  14,  1863 : 

"  The  formidable  ram-frigate  Dunderberg,  now  building 
for  the  government  by  W.  H.  Webb,  at  his  yard  at  the 
foot  of  Sixth  Street,  this  city,  is  in  a  very  forward  state, 
and  being  completed  as  fast  as  possible.  We  lately  visited 
this  vessel,  and  are  able  to  furnish  a  few  details  of  her  con- 
struction, which  we  think  will  prove  acceptable  to  our 
readers. 

"  The  hull  of  the  Dunderberg  is  massive,  being  solid 
from  stem  to  stern.  It  is  378  feet  long,  sixty-eight  feet 
wide,  and  thirty-two  feet  deep.  The  frames  are  twelve 
inches  thick,  and  are  built  of  oak,  firmly  bolted  and 
fastened  together.  The  model  of  the  ship  is  very  peculiar. 
The  floor  is  dead  flat  for  the  whole  length,  and  the  sides 
rise  from  it  at  an  angle  everywhere  save  forward,  where 
they  are  very  nearly  vertical.  The  bow  is  as  sharp  and  has 
as  fine  lines  as  it  is  possible  to  give  it ;  and  the  stern  and 
run  aft  are  very  clean  and  handsomely  modeled.  The  hull 
is  divided  by  several  water-tight  compartments,  both  lon- 
gitudinally and  transversely — a  precaution  common  to 
nearly  all  modern  sea-going  ships,  which  has  been  found 
indispensable.    The  frames  are  strapped  diagonally  with 


THE  AMERICAN  NAVY.  if? 

heavy  irons,  -^ye  inclies  wide  by  seven-eigliths  of  an  inch 
thick,  blunt  bolted  to  them.  There  is  a  slight  sheer  on 
deck,  but  it  is  almost  invisible  to  the  casual  observer  at 
a  short  distance.  There  is  but  one  rudder :  provision  is 
made,  however,  for  steering  by  an  auxiliary  apparatus  of  a 
peculiar  nature,  should  the  main  steering-gear  be  shot  away. 
The  frame  timbers,  twelve  inches  thick,  are  ceiled  inside 
five  inches  thick,  planked  outside  ^ve  inches  thick,  and 
over  the  planking  two  courses  of  heavy  oak  beams,  twelve 
inches  thick,  are  again  laid,  making  in  all  an  aggregate 
amount  of  nearly  ^ve  feet  of  solid  timber  on  the  ram's  sides. 
The  planking  is  all  caulked,  and  the  seams  payed,  before 
the  last  protection  is  applied,  and  the  entire  mass  is  as 
firmly  bolted  together  as  it  is  possible  to  do  it. 

"  The  ram  on  the  Dunderberg  is  about  as  formidable  a 
looking  object  as  one  can  conceive.  The  entire  fore-foot 
of  the  vessel  is  prolonged  thirty  feet  from  the  hull  proper, 
and,  rising  easily  upward  from  the  keel  about  half  the  dis- 
tance from  the  water-line,  is  there  rounded,  presenting  a 
blunt  end  in  shape  like  the  profile  of  an  ax-edge ;  it  then 
runs  back  toward  the  stem  again.  The  mass  of  wood 
which  forms  this  ram  projects  inside. of  the  hull  almost  as 
far  as  it  does  outboard,  and  is  there  substantially  secured 
to  the  main  timbers.  The  sides  and  edga  of  the  ram  will 
be  iron-plated  ;  and  even  should  the  whole  of  it  be  knocked 
off  in  an  affray,  the  builders  say  that  the  hull  will  be 
water-tight. 

"  The  Dunderberg  has,  on  top  of  the  main-deck,  case- 
mated  quarters  for  the  guns  and  crew.  This  casemate 
slopes  at  an  acute  angle  from  the  sides  to  the  top.  It 
takes  up  a  large  portion  of  the  vessel  amid-ships,  and  is 
an  elongated  octagon  in  shape.  It  is  made  of  heavy  tim- 
ber, plated  with  iron  four  and  a  half  inches  thick.  It  is 
pierced  on  each  side  for  three  broadside  guns,  and  has  one 
port  forward  and  another  aft,  in  the  casemate,  for  bow  and 
stern  firing.  The  hull  of  the  ship  is  built  out  from  a  dis- 
tance below  the  water-line  to  meet  the  edge  of  the  case- 
mate above,  so  that  the  broadside  of  the  Dunderberg  will 


478  THE   AMERICAN    NAVY. 

present  an  acute  angle  to  the  line  of  tlie  enemy's  fire.  "We 
do  not  know  what  the  inclination  of  the  casemate  and  side 
is,  but  it  can  not  be  less  than  45°.  The  mass  of  wood  and 
iron  presenting  a  resistance  to  the  enemy's  rams  or  pro- 
jectiles at  this  point  amounts  in  all  to  seven  feet.  There 
are  to  be  two  turrets  on  the  top  of  this  casemate.  The 
thickness  of  the  turret-walls  will  be  much  greater  than 
those  of  the  '  Monitor '  batteries,  and  strong  enough  to 
resist  the  heaviest  ordnance. 

"  The  armament  of  the  Dunderberg  has  been  variously 
guessed  at  by  parties.  As  it  is  not  publicly  known  what 
•it  will  be,  we  are  not  able  to  inform  our  readers,  further 
than  that  rumor  assigns  the  twenty-inch  guns  to  the 
broadside,  while  each  turret  will  also  contain  two  heavy 
guns.  The  deck  of  the  casemate,  and  also  the  main-deck, 
will  be  plated  bomb-proof;  and  the  quarters  for  the  officers 
and  crew,  being  in  the  fortress  on  deck,  will  be  thoroughly 
ventilated  and  open  to  the  light  and  air  :  there  will  then  be 
none  of  that  depressing  influence  which  is  so  marked  in  the 
departments  assigned  to  the  crews  on  the  other  batteries. 

"  One  great  and  overwhelming  advantage  that  this 
splendid  vessel  has  is,  that  she  is  built  of  wood.  She  may 
leak,  become  water-logged,  roll,  pitch,  and  toss,  but  there 
will  still  be  some  hope  for  the  crew  as  long  as  they  stick 
to  her.  Iron  batteries  fill  and  plunge  out  of  sight  with 
very  little  warning.  The  effect  of  this  fact  upon  sailors 
morally  is  not  the  least  important  one.  Although  no  men 
could  have  behaved  better  than  the  crew  of  the  Monitor 
did  in  their  peril,  yet  they  all  felt  that  their  case  was 
hopeless ;  and  if  they  were  saved,  it  would  be  more  the 
result  of  good  fortune  than  any  aid  which  their  ship  could 
afford  them.  The  Dunderberg  will  draw  about  twenty 
feet  of  water.  Her  speed  is  not  stated.  Her  engines  are 
estimated  at  6,000-horse  power.  We  are  not  able  at  pres- 
ent to  give  particulars  of  them.*' 

This  is  one  of  the  largest  war  ships  in  the  world,  and 
-^uite  different  from  all  others  yet  devised. 


THE  AMERICAN    NAVY.  479 

K  to  these  descriptions  is  added  an  account  of  some  of 
the  iron-clads  intended  for  the  rivers,  the  reader  will  have 
the  means  of  forming  a  correct  opinion  of  the  mailed  navy 
of  the  United  States  in  its  present  condition,  (March,  1864). 
The  gun-boats  Lafayette  and  Tuscumbia  have  been  selected 
as  types  of  our  most  powerful  river  iron-clads. 

The  Lafayette  is  304  feet  long,  fifty  feet  beam,  and 
draws  eight  and  a  half  feet  of  water.  Her  plating  is  two 
and  a  half  inches  thick,  backed  by  two  inches  of  India- 
rubber  and  twelve  inches  of  solid  oak.  Her  armament 
consists  of  two  200-pounder  Parrott  guns,  two  100-pounder 
Parrott  guns,  and  four  nine-inch  Dahlgrens. 

The  description  of  the  Tuscumbia  is  taken  from  the 
Scientific  American  : 

"  The  Tuscumbia  is  one  among  the  largest  vessels  in 
the  Western  fleet.  In  strength  of  timbers,  imperviousness 
of  her  coat  of  iron  mail,  stanchness  of  build,  and  com- 
pleteness of  outfit,  she  will  rank  among  the  very  best  of 
the  iron-clads  yet  built.  Her  length  is  182  feet,  breadth 
of  beam  seventy  feet,  depth  of  hold  eight  feet.  She  will 
draw  ^ve  and  a  half  feet  of  water  with  all  her  armament, 
stores,  coal,  etc.,  aboard. 

"  Her  machinery  is  of  superior  finish  and  extraordinary 
strength,  and  is  all  below  the  iron-clad  deck,  and  is  con- 
structed upon  an  entirely  new  plan,  lately  approved  and 
adopted  by  the  navy.  She  has  two  cylinders,  thirty  inches 
in  diameter,  six  feet  stroke,  working  two  powerful  side- 
wheels  twenty-five  feet  in  diameter,  twelve  feet  bucket. 
She  is  also  supplied  with  two  other  cylinders,  twenty 
inches  stroke,  working  two  screw  propellers  six  feet  six 
inches  in  diameter.  She  is  furnished  with  two  small 
engines  for  working  the  capstan ;  one  forward  and  the 
other  aft.  She  has  six  twenty-eight-feet  boilers  forty 
inches  in  diameter,  with  five  flues  each,  with  an  auxiliary 
pumping-engine  for  filling  the  boilers.  By  her  pumps  the 
vessel  could  be  flooded  in  a  short  time. 

"  The  Tuscumbia  has,  in  addition  to  her  armament,  an 


480  THE  AMERICAN  NAVY. 

apparatus  for  throwing  hot  water,  capable  of  ejecting  a 
scalding  stream  to  a  distance  of  two  hundred  feet.  The 
armament  consists  of  three  eleven-inch  Dahlgreu  guns,  iu 
battery,  forward,  and  two  100-pounder  rifled  guns,  in  bat- 
tery, aft.  The  iron  plating  on  the  batteries  or  gun-rooms 
is  six  inches  in  thickness  forward,  and  four  inches  thick 
aft.  The  sides  of  the  vessel  are  plated  with  three-inch 
wrought-iron ;  the  deck  with  one-inch  wrought-iron. 

"  The  cost  of  the  Tuscumbia  will  be  about  $250,000. 
Her  magazines  are  provided  with  an  apparatus  by  which 
they  can  be  completely  flooded  in  the  short  space  of  one 
minute.  A  bulwark  of  iron,  loop-holed,  for  musketry,  is 
placed  around  her  guards.  Her  speed  will  be  about  twelve 
miles  an  hour  against  the  current.  She  will  be  manned 
by  150  marines.  Her  custom-house  measurement  is  980 
tuns." 

It  must  not,  however,  be  thought  that  these  two  boats 
represent  nearly  all  the  Western  iron-clads.  They  are  of 
many  diflerent  forms,  and  vary  greatly  in  their  armament 
and  general  efficiency.  Many  of  them  are  expensive  and 
powerful  vessels.  Some  of  those  lately  constructed  have 
turrets ;  and  the  form  of  these  has  been  varied,  in  order 
to  try  experiments  which  might  settle  important  questions 
of  construction.  Their  armament,  in  general,  is  very 
heavy — nearly  all  of  them  carrying  one  or  more  guns  of 
greater  caliber  than  can  be  found  on  the  largest  French 
and  English  frigates.  Eleven-inch  smooth-bores  and  200- 
pounder  rifles  are  common  guns  on  board  the  larger  class 
of  the  river  iron-clad  gun-boats.  They  have  been  used 
successfully  against  fortifications  armed  with  the  largest 
cannon,  rifled  and  smooth-bore,  which  the  rebels  have,  and 
have  proved  a  most  efficient  arm  of  the  nation's  power. 

The  only  broadside  ocean  ships  which  the  Americans 
have  yet  plated  with  iron,  except  the  Roanoke,  which  has 
an  exposed  side  and  turrets  also,  are  the  ^mall  corvette  Ga- 
lena and  the  !N'ew  Ironsides  frigate.  It  is  stated  that  the 
Galena  was  mailed  with  plates  three  and  a  half  inches  thick. 


THE  AMERICAN  NAVY,  481 

She  was  pierced  and  nearly  ruined  by  ten-inch  shot  in  the 
fight  at  Fort  Darling,  while  the  same  kind  of  shot  made 
no  serious  impression  on  the  armor  of  the  Monitor. 

The  ITew  Ironsides  is  a  first-class  frigate,  whose  tunnage, 
according  to  the  register,  is  about  3,500  tuns.  She  is, 
therefore,  somewhat  larger  than  the  Minnesota,  and  about 
1,000  tuns  less  in  burden  than  the  Niagara.  Her  armor- 
plates  are  four  and  a  half  inches  thick ;  and  her  armament 
consists  of  fourteen  eleven-inch  smooth-bores,  two  150- 
pounder  rifles,  two  50-pounder  rifles,  and  two  howitzers. 

Her  broadside,  therefore,  is  very  nearly  the  same  with 
that  of  the  Warrior  in  weight;  but  her  principal  shot 
weigh  170  and  150  pounds,  while  those  of  the  English  frig- 
ate weigh  68  and  100  pounds — ^the  latter  used  in  Armstrong 
guns. 

Such  guns  as  the  "New  Ironsides  carries  defeated  the- 
Merrimac,  though  the  Monitor  had  only  two  of  them ;. 
while  the  Ironsides  has  been  exposed  at  Charleston  to  far 
more  formidable  guns  than  any  yet  used  on  an  English,, 
or,  indeed,  on  any  European  ship,  and  has  received  in  all 
those  battles  no  serious  injury.  The  Charleston  corre- 
spondent of  the  London  Times  describes  her  broadside  as- 
the  most  terrible  one  in  its  effects  ever  thrown  from  a  ship. 
Except  in  speed,  this  ship  has  fully  answered  the  expecta-. 
tion  of  the  country.  She  was  constructed,  however,  with 
a  more  anxious  care  to  obtain  a  powerful  and  invulnerable 
battery  than  to  give  her  unusual  speed.  The  broadside 
ship  and  the  Monitor  batteries  are  designed  for  different 
spheres  of  action ;  and  while  swiftness  is  desirable  in  both^ 
it  seems  more  important  for  the  broadside  ship  that  is  in-^ 
tended  for  an  ocean  cruiser. 

It  must  be  remembered,  when  comparing  the  armament 
of  American  and  European  ships,  that  changes  are  con- 
tinually going  on  ;  and  the  indications  are  that  England 
is  disposed  to  follow  our  lead  in  the  adoption  of  heavy 
guns ;  and  we  may  expect  to  see  some  of  her  new  ships 
armed  with  the  largest  guns  which  she  is  able  to  fabricate. 
It  is  announced,  for  instance,  that  the  Royal  Sovereigp,  a 
31 


482  THE  AMERICAN  NAVY. 

turreted  ship,  is  to  carry  300-pounder  guns.  As  yet  Eng- 
land has  not  produced  a  reliable  cannon  of  this  size,  much 
less  has  she  mounted  one  on  the  deck  of  a  ship.  But  if 
Americans  teach  her  the  art,  she  will  do  it  hereafter. 
Our  largest  wooden  frigates,  such  as  the  Wabash,  the 
Minnesota,  and  the  Niagara,  are  ships  of  only  medium 
speed,  but  they  are  heavily  armed  with  the  most  formi- 
dable cannon  which  have  ever  been  used,  except  those  on 
board  the  Monitors.  As  an  example,  the  Magara,  which 
has  been  undergoing  extensive  repairs,  in  the  hope  of  in- 
creasing her  speed,  lately  took  on  board,  as  her  armament, 
twenty-four  eleven-inch  smooth-bore  guns  and  twelve  200- 
pounder  Parrott  rifles,  with  which  the  weight  of  her  broad- 
side would  be  3,200  pounds,  twice  that,  or  nearly  so,  of 
the  English  Warrior.  This  armament,  however,  was  found 
to  sink  the  ship  too  low  in  the  water,  and  it  has  been 
changed.  The  case,  however,  indicates  the  direction  of 
American  experiments.  Our  new  corvettes,  such  as  the 
Lackawanna  and  the  Canandaigua,  are  very  swift  ships, 
and,  in  size,  are  nearly  equal  to  the  old  form  of  the  line-  i 
of-battle  ship,  while  their  armament  is  far  more  formi- 
dable. 

This  general  survey  of  the  American  navy  may  he  com- 
pleted by  stating  that  among  our  smaller  vessels  are 
some  of  the  swiftest  in  the  world. 

American  Artillery. 

It  will  be  seen,  from  the  foregoing  statements,  that  the 
•comparative  efficiency  of  the  new  American  navy  depends 
upon  two  things:  the  American,  or  Ericsson  form  of  the 
turreted  ship,  and  the  power  of  our  new  artillery.  If  the 
Monitor  batteries  are  really  invulnerable,  yet,  if  they  are 
not  armed  with  guns  that  can  shatter  or  pierce  the  sides 
of  an  enemy's  ship,  they  would  be  nearly  worthless,  while 
the  superiority  and  even  the  safety  of  our  ships  of  other 
forms  must  depend  upon  the  character  of  their  guns. 

Other  nations  as  well  as  our  own  are  earnestly  engaged 
in  costly  experiments  with  artillery.     What  they  may 


THE   AMERICAN    NAVY.  483 

hereafter  produce,  of  course,  none  now  can  know ;  but,  up 
almost  to  the  present  hour,  the  eflbrt  of  the  artillerists 
of  Europe  has  been  to  obtain  the  highest  possible  velocity 
for  the  shot,  the  greatest  possible  power  of  penetration, 
sacrificing  to  these  ends  the  weight  of  the  projectile. 

The  American  theory,  on  the  contrary,  has  been  to 
increase  the  weight  of  the  shot,  at  the  expense  of  its 
velocity  if  necessary — ^to  use,  in  any  event,  for  breaching 
walls  and  smashing  armor-plates,  a  heavy  projectile,  and 
then,  by  rifling  or  otherwise  improving  the  gun,  to  increase 
Telocity  and  range. 

Acting  upon  these  opposite  theories,  the  English  have 
mounted,  as  yet,  upon  their  ships  no  smooth-bore  cannon 
larger  than  the  eight-inch  68-pounder,  which  forms  the 
principal  broadside  guns  of  the  Warrior,  while  the  Amer- 
icans have  already  in  actual  service,  on  their  vessels,  nine- 
inch,  ten-inch,  eleven-inch,  and  fifteen-inch  smooth-bore 
guns,  while  a  twenty-inch  gun  has  just  been  cast  at  Pitts- 
burg, said  to  be  intended  for  the  Dunderberg;  and  200- 
pounder  rifles  are  found  on  even  our  gun-boats,  and  300- 
pounder  Parrott  rifles  are  in  our  batteries  at  Charleston. 

Before  stating  facts  in  regard  to  American  cannon  which 
might  seem  an  empty  boast,  it  may  be  well  to  present 
some  very  late  English  opinions  upon  our  new  artillery. 
The  first  extract  is  from  the  Richmond  correspondent  of 
the  London  Times,  and,  of  course,  not  inclined  to  over- 
estimate an  American  invention. 

"Again  I  feel  tempted  to  raise  a  warning  voice  about 
the  disparity  of  the  armament  on  board  of  the  English 
and  American  navies.  It  is  impossible  for  those  who  have 
been  many  months  absent  from  England  to  be  well  in- 
formed as  to  the  actual  state  of  public  opinion  at  the 
present  moment  upon  this  vital  subject.  But,  judging 
from  the  officers  of  Her  Majesty's  navy  who  have,  at  rare 
intervals,  brought  vessels  of  war  into  Confederate  ports,  it 
appears  still  to  be  held  that  the  68-pounder  or  eight-inch 
Bmooth-bore  is  England's  best  weapon  of  oftense  against 


484  THE  AMERICAN  NAVY. 

iron-clad  vessels.  The  experience  gained  at  Charleston 
enables  me  confidently  to  affirm  that  as  well  might  you 
pelt  one  of  the  Yankee  Monitors  or  the  Ironsides  with 
peas  as  expect  them  to  be  in  any  way  damaged  by  eight- 
inch  shot. 

"Another  disagreeable  question  forces  itself  upon  an 
Englishman's  attention  when  he  is  cognizant  of  the  terrij&c 
broadside  thrown  by  the  eight  eleven-inch  guns  of  the  Iron- 
sides— one  of  the  most  formidable  broadsides,  in  the  opin- 
ion of  the  defenders  of  Charleston,  which  has  ever  been 
thrown  by  any  vessel  upon  earth.  Have  we  any  ship  in 
existence  which  could  successfully  resist  such  a  broadside, 
and  respond  to  it  with  any  thing  like  commensurate 
weight  and  vigor?  I  should  be  faithless  to  my  duty 
if  I  did  not  mention  that  it  is  the  universal  opinion 
of  all  the  English  officers  serving  in  the  Confederate  army, 
with  whom  I  have  conversed,  that  England  is  behind 
America  in  the  weight  and  power  of  the  guns  sent  by  both 
nations  to  sea. 

"  It  is  still  a  matter  of  the  greatest  surprise  to  those  who 
are  cognizant  of  the  endless  experiments  in  guns  and  pro- 
jectiles which  are  every  day  made  by  the  Federal  and 
Confederate  States,  that  England  has  not  thought  it  worth  I 
her  while  to  attach  to  the  armies  of  both  nations  such  a 
commission  as  McClellan  had  in  the  Crimean  war,  with  a 
view  to  their  gaining  such  scientific  information  with  re- 
gard to  ordnance  and  projectiles  as  at  this  moment  can  be 
gained  nowhere  else  on  earth.  It  is  my  conviction  that  : 
from  both  sections  such  commissioners  would  receive  noth-  ! 
ing  but  courteous  and  unreserved  information  upon  all 
that  it  imported  them  to  know.  It  is  scarcely  creditable 
to  our  government  that  they  should  be  blind  to  the  op- 
portunities for  gaining  information  which  this  gigantic 
conflict  affi^rds,  or  that,  from  Old  World  pride,  they 
should  refuse  to  avail  themselves  of  the  experience  to  be 
derived  from  a  continent  destined  henceforth  and  ever- 
more to  play  no  secondary  part  in  the  drama  of  the 
world." 


THE  AMERICAN  NAVY.  485 

The  second  opinion  is  taken  from  the  Army  and  !N"avy 
Gazette  (London") : 

"  It  may  be  concluded  as  certain  that  the  guns  used  by 
Gillmore  were  Parrott's  rifled  ordnance.  Their  work  has 
been  effectually  done.  Had  such  guns  been  available  in 
the  trenches  before  Sebastopol,  the  Allies  would  have  made 
short  work,  not  only  of  the  Redan  and  Malakoff,  and 
bastion  du  mdt,  but  of  the  shipping  and  of  the  forts  at  the 
other  side  of  the  harbor.  It  must  not  be  supposed  that 
Sumter  was  a  flimsy,  gingerbread  fort.  It  was  constructed 
of  a  peculiar  kind  of  hard,  close  brick,  six  and  seven  feet 
thick;  the  arches  of  the  casemates  and  the  supporting 
pillars  were  of  eight  and  nine  feet  thickness.  The  faces 
presented  to  the  breaching  batteries  must  have  subtended, 
at  3,500  yards,  an  exceedingly  small  angle,  and  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  fort  was  low.  But  so  great  was  the  accuracy 
of  the  fire  that  a  vast  proportion  of  the  shots  struck  it ; 
so  great  the  penetration,  that  the  brick- work  was  perforated 
*  like  a  rotten  cheese ; '  so  low  the  trajectory,  that  the  shot, 
instead  of  plunging  into,  passed  through  the  fort,  and 
made  clean  breaches  through  both  walls.  Now,  the  guns 
that  did  this  work  cost,  we  believe,  just  one-fourth  of  our 
ordnance,  cwt.  for  cwt. ;  they  are  light  and  very  easily 
handled.  The  gun  itself  is  finely  rifled,  with  grooves 
varying  from  four  and  ^ye  in  number,  for  small  calibers, 
fto  six  and  seven  for  the  larger;  but,  as  Mr.  Parrott  is 
still  'experimenting,'  no  settled  plan  has  been  arrived  at, 
and  all  we  know  is  that  the  pitch  is  not  so  sharp  as  is  the 
case  in  our  rifled  guns.  The  projectile  is  like  the  conical 
Armstrong,  and  has  a  leaden  sabot  and  coating — at  least 
it  is  coated  and  based  with  some  soft  metal. 

"  In  this  journal  the  attention  of  the  government  authori- 
ties has  been  called,  again  and  again,  to  the  Parrott  and 
Dahlgren  guns.  The  Americans  have  constructed  cannon 
of  calibers  which  to  us  are  known  only  as  of  theoretical  and 
probable  attainment,  and  they  have  armed  batteries  hund- 
reds of  miles  from  their  arsenals,  with  the  most  powerful 


486  THE   AMERICAN  NAVY. 

guns  ever  used  in  war,  which  have  been  carried  by  sea  and 
in  stormy  waters  to  the  enemy's  shores.  Before  such  pro- 
jectiles as  these  guns  carry,  the  breaching  of  masonry, 
whether  of  biick  or  stone,  is  a  question  of  short  time.  And, 
in  face  of  these  facts,  we  are  obliged  to  record  that  our  sci- 
entific officers  are  of  opinion  that  our '  best  gun  for  breach- 
ing purposes  is  the  old  68-pounder  I '  Why,  we  know  what 
that  can  do !  We  know  that  at  3,500  yards  its  fire  would 
be  about  as  effectual  as  that  of  Mons.  Meg.  These  trials 
at  two  hundred  yards  are  perfectly  fatuous,  if  no  other 
results  than  these,  or  such  as  these,  be  gained  by  them. 
It  is  of  no  use  saying  Sumter  was  of  brick;  it  was  at  least 
as  good  a  work  as  most  of  our  existing  fortifications,  and 
infinitely  less  easy  ^  to  splinter  up '  than  a  work  of  granite 
or  rubble  masonry.  In  substance  it  resembled  very  much 
our  martello-towers  on  the  beach  at  Hythe.  Have  we 
any  gun  which  could  breach  one  of  these  at  3,500  yards  ? 
.  .  .  The  authorities  have  had  no  experience  of  the 
effect  of  such  shot  as  the  Dahlgrens  propel.  They  have 
not  got  the  guns  to  discharge  them.  When  next  the 
ordnance  officers  and  gentlemen  meet,  let  them  apply  their 
minds  to  the  little  experiments  the  Americans  have  been 
making  for  their  benefit  at  Sumter.  It  is  astounding  to 
see  what  progress  has  been  made  in  artillery  since  the 
Crimean  war." 

Another  English  periodical,  by  no  means  favorable  to 
Americans,  makes  the  following  observations  upon  the 
operations  at  Charleston: 

" '  The  Swamp  Angel,'  as  the  Federals  call  the  big  gun 
of  General  Gillmore,  has  surely  bellowed  loud  enough  at 
Sumter  to  wake  up  some  of  our  critics  at  home  to  what  is 
a  fact  in  despite  of  them.  As  they  have  underestimated  the 
civil  contest,  so  they  have  overlooked  the  Titanic  charac- 
ter of  the  military  duel,  peddling  and  muddling  over 
strategics  on  the  map,  and  blind,  meanwhile,  to  the  revo- 
lution which  these  giant  combatants  are  accomplishing  in 


THE  AMERICAN  NAVY.  487 

the  art  of  warfare.  If  the  Americans  are  vain  of  being 
*  big/  why  not  do  them  the  justice  of  confessing  that  they 
attain  that  adjective,  in  their  contentions,  their  sufferings, 
and  their  engines  and  methods  of  warfare?  Twice  in  the 
course  of  this  two-years  struggle  they  have  altered  the 
complexion  of  the  science  of  destruction — once  on  the 
water,  and  once  on  land.  The  Monitor  and  Merrimac 
confessedly  initiated  a  new  era  in  naval  tactics.  The  plates 
of  both  are  hardly  rusted  by  the  salt  water  into  which 
they  went  down  so  soon ;  but  already  every  country  that 
pretends  to  keep  the  sea  armed  is  fitting  out  vessels  after 
their  kind.  Now,  it  is  a  revolution  in  the  art  of  attack 
by  battery  and  defense  by  battlements,  which  these  ener- 
getic fighters  have  developed.  Sumter  is  down — ^breached 
and  shattered  into  such  a  ruin  that  hardly  one  stone  stands 
upon  another.  And  this,  after  repeated  failure  with  such 
artillery  as  could  be  made  to  float  aboard  ship,  has  been 
accomplished  by  enormous  cannon  fixed  on  a  land-battery, 
discharging  bolts  of  two  hundred  pounds  weight,  at  a 
range  of  four  thousand  four  hundred  yards.  Six  hundred 
of  these  Olympian  thunderbolts  were  hurled  across  this 
interval  upon  the  walls  and  parapets  of  Sumter  during  the 
course  of  three  days,  and  with  such  deadly  accuracy  that 
the  proud  key-stone  fortress  of  Charleston  Harbor  withered 
under  them;  and  an  eye-witness  writes,  that  a  moldy 
cheese  fired  at  for  a  month  with  pistols  could  not  present 
a  more  forlorn  appearance  than  Fort  Sumter  at  the  close 
of  the  bombardment.  No  arsenal  is  safe,  no  empire  secure 
which  is  too  proud  to  study  this  lesson.  Nevertheless,  what 
is  chiefly  remarkable  about  the  destruction  of  Sumter  is 
the  range  at  which  it  was  accomplished,  and  the  precision 
of  the  fire  by  which  these  huge  bolts  were  flung.  The 
200-pounders  are  said  to  have  gone  through  and  through, 
till  the  further  channel  of  the  fort  could  be  seen  be- 
tween the  gaping  rents  and  fissures  of  the  double  wall. 
Neither  Mr.  Whitworth  nor  Sir  William  Armstrong  has 
shown  us  any  thing  in  range  and  accuracy  like  this.  The 
American  officers  have,  first  in  their  profession,  laid,  and 


488  THE  AMERICAN    NAVY. 

kept  at  work  througliout  three  days,  siege-guns  the  like 
of  which  for  weight  were  last  used  when  Mohammed  be- 
sieged Constantinople.  We  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that 
our  Spithead  forts  must  be  reconsidered,  as  to  structure 
and  position,  if  our  enemies,  whoever  they  may  be,  can  be 
made  to  fire  these  American  guns  from  their  floating 
batteries." 

The  facts  upon  which  these  Englishmen  have  been  com- 
pelled to  review  and  change  their  opinions  of  American 
affairs  are  such  as  all  Americans  should  know  and  study, 
and  they  are  presented  to  the  reader,  in  order  that  he  may 
feel  confidence  in  American  genius,  and  know  the  nature 
and  power  of  our  new  weapons  of  war.  It  is  proposed  to 
confine  these  statements  to  our  largest  cannon,  for  they 
alone  are  peculiarly  American.  The  300-pounder  Parrott 
gun  is  the  most  destructive  one,  at  long  ranges,  which  has 
as  yet  been  used,  either  in  this  country  or  elsewhere. 

Its  range  is  between  five  and  six  miles,  and  Charleston 
has  been  effectually  shelled  at  a  distance  of  ^ve  miles. 
This  gun,  as  is  said,  has  thrown  its  shot  through  nine 
inches  of  solid  iron. 

The  200-pounder  Parrott  rifle  has  a  range  scarcely  less 
than  the  former ;  and  with  these  guns  Sumter  was  riddled 
and  demolished  at  the  distance  of  two  miles  and  a  half,  a 
feat  before  unheard  of  in  all  the  records  of  war.  In  the 
destruction  of  Fort  Sumter  the  Monitors  and  the  New 
Ironsides  assisted,  but  the  work  was  performed  mainly  by 
the  land-batteries,  because  the  destruction  was  certain 
without  exposure  of  the  fleet,  and  with  little  loss  of  life. 
Some  of  the  Monitors  are  armed  with  one  of  these  guns, 
and  one  fifteen-inch  one.  The  shot  of  the  fifteen-inch 
gun  weighs  425  pounds,  and  the  shell  334  pounds.  These 
monster  guns,  being  as  yet  experiments,  have  been  handled 
very  cautiously  in  regard  to  the  charges  of  powder.  In 
the  trial  of  this  gun  at  Fortress  Monroe,  General  Barnard, 
of  the  Engineer  Corps,  says  the  shell,  with  a  charge  of 
forty  pounds  of  large-grained  powder,  had  an  initial  veloc- 


THE  AMERICAN    NAVY.  489 

ity  of  1,328  feet  per  second,  and  a  range  of  more  than 
three  miles,  with  28°  35'  elevation. 

He  gives  his  opinion  that  the  maximum  range  of  this 
gun  is  "  considerably  beyond  four  miles."  It  has  been 
lately  found  that  these,  as  well  as  our  other  large  cast-iron 
smooth-bores,  will  bear  charges  heavier  than  those  hith- 
erto used.  The  French  armor-plates  are  said  to  be  supe- 
rior in  resisting  power  to  the  English  ones.  A  Erench 
plate,  six  inches  thick,  and  prepared  especially  for  a  tar- 
get, was  lately,  at  the  Washington  Navy-yard,  smashed  in 
pieces  by  a  single  shot  from  one  of  these  fifteen-inch  guns. 

"  While  rifle  sea-coast  guns  give  vastly  increased  accuracy, 
range,  and  penetration  at  the  higher  elevations,  the  effect 
upon  armored  vessels  of  their  projectiles  of  relatively 
smaller  diameter  is  very  much  less  destructive  than  the 
smashing  shock  of  the  immense  iron  spheres  projected 
from  the  thirteen,  the  fifteen,  or  the  twenty-inch. 

"  There  is  no  longer  any  question  of  the  fact,  that  the 
introduction  of  guns  which  project  such  enormous  spheres 
of  iron  have  restored  to  forts  their  pristine  superiority  over 
ships.  No  sea-going  armored  vessel  can  withstand  the 
shock  of  a  fifteen-inch  shot ;  and  it  is  believed  that  a 
thirteen-inch,  or  even  a  ten-inch  solid  shot  will  be  found 
to  be  quite  as  effective.  It  is,  therefore,  safe  to  assert, 
that  our  harbors,  defended  by  forts  armed  with  such  guns, 
and  having  the  advantage  of  artificial  submarine  obstruc- 
tions, are  securely  barred  against  any  ship  that  can  cross 
the  ocean.  The  wreck  produced  by  the  impact  of  these 
mighty  spheres  will  set  at  defiance  the  most  energetic 
eflbrts  of  ships'-pumps  or  ship-carpenters'  plugs ;  and,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  brief  but  eloquent  duel  of  the  Weehaw- 
ken  and  the  Atlanta,  the  men  of  which  latter  vessel  were 
driven  below  from  their  guns,  and  could  not  be  induced  to 
return  to  them,  it  produces  a  moral  effect  as  irresistible  as 
t  is  fatal." 

The  armor  of  the  Atlanta,  equal,  as  is  said,  to  five  inches 


490  THE   AMEEIOAN    NAVY. 

of  solid  iron,  was  pierced  by  a  shot  from  a  fifteen-incli 
gun,  and  the  ship  captured. 

The  government  has  lately  constructed  a  thirteen-inch 
gun  of  the  same  external  dimensions,  or  nearly  so,  as  the 
fifteen-inch  gun.  It  is  supposed  that  this  will  bear  a  much 
heavier  charge  of  powder,  and  the  velocity  and  range  of 
the  shot  be  proportionately  greater.  To  test  the  penetrat- 
ing and  smashing  power  of  cannon-shot,  a  ten-inch  gun 
was  lately  loaded  heavily  and  fired  at  an  iron  target  ten 
inches  thick,  and  the  ball  pierced  it  through. 

The  heavy  Parrott  rifles  will  pierce  armor-plates  of  four 
inches  and  -Q.ve  inches  thickness  with  ease.  The  300- 
pounder  smashes  a  nine-inch  plate ;  and  Stafford's  projec- 
tiles, thrown  from  a  cast-iron  smooth-bore,  have  gone 
through  seven  inches  of  solid  iron,  with  only  fourteen 
pounds  of  powder. 

These  facts,  in  connection  with  what  has  been  before 
stated,  will  enable  one  to  judge  of  the  comparative  power 
of  our  navy,  and  our  means  of  attack  and  defense.  The 
reader  must  remember  that  the  results  already  reached  are 
the  first  fruits  only  of  American  genius  when  earnestly 
applied  to  the  arts  of  war ;  and  that  experiments  are  even 
now  going  on  which  promise  still  more  formidable  cannon 
than  any  now  in  use. 

In  estimating  the  power  of  our  weapons,  the  reader 
must  not  forget  that  the  old  solid  cast-iron  spherical  shot 
and  the  spherical  shell  are  no  longer  the  most  formidable 
projectiles  used  in  cannon.  Elongated  shot  and  shells  of 
many  different  forms  are  used  in  our  rifled  cannon,  and 
lately  such  projectiles  have  been  used  in  our  smooth-bores, 
and  even  in  the  fifteen-inch  guns.  According  to  Captain 
Rodgers'  report,  it  was  a  conical  shot  from  a  fifteen-inch 
gun  which  smashed  the  side  of  the  Atlanta,  and  drove  the 
crew  in  a  panic  from  their  guns — the  eleven-inch  gun  hav- 
ing failed  to  injure  her. 

Some  of  these  elongated  missiles,  whose  length  is  about 
twice  and  a  half  their  diameter,  are  rounded  like  a  cone, 
some  are  flat-headed,  some  have  the  end  formed  like  a 


1^ 


THB  AMERICAN  NAVY.  491 

punch,  some  are  cast-iron,  some  are  of  chilled-iron,  some 
have  case-hardened  ends,  some  are  of  wrought-iron,  and 
some  are  of  steel.  These  last  are  said  to  be  the  most  de- 
structive shot  which  have  yet  been  tried,  so  far  as  pene- 
tration is  concerned ;  but  whether  these  or  the  smashing 
heavy  shot — a  425-pounder — would  soonest  destroy  a  ship 
or  fort,  is  a  question  yet  to  be  tried. 

The  reader  can  now  form  an  intelligent  opinion  of  the 
comparative  power  for  attack  and  resistance  of  the  Amer- 
ican and  the  European  iron-clad.  But  before  the  direct 
comparison  is  made,  let  the  following  statement  be  care- 
fully read.  It  is  the  opinion  of  one  of  the  most  competent 
judges  of  such  matters  in  this  country — the  editor  of  the 
Scientific  American — upon  the  condition  of  the  Monitors 
after  the  attack  upon  Sumter ;  an  opinion  formed,  as  is 
shown,  after  a  personal  inspection  of  the  vessel  most  in- 
jured in  the  fight : 

"  ^N'ow  that  the  smoke  of  battle  has  cleared  away,  and 
the  fearful  cannonading  at  Fort  Sumter,  which  so  annoyed 
the  twittering  reporters,  has  ceased,  we  may  review  the 
event  dispassionately  and  with  reason,  at  least  in  so  far  as 
it  concerns  the  offensive  and  defensive  powers  of  the  Mon- 
itors. The  daily  press,  through  its  accredited  representa- 
tives, made  great  haste  to  assure  the  public  that  their 
favorite  batteries,  those  in  which  (not  unwisely)  they 
placed  the  greatest  confidence,  were  altogether  unsuitable, 
and,  in  fact,  were  not  available  against  heavy  artillery. 
At  the  time  we  were  compelled,  against  our  judgment,  in 
view  of  the  overwhelming  representations  of  these  self- 
constituted  authorities,  to  accept  as  a  fact  that  we  were 
beaten  in  the  contest,  and  compelled  to  retire  from  the 
fort  by  sheer  force  alone.  Even  at  the  time  of  the  action, 
and  in  days  supervening,  that  portion  of  the  press  of  the 
country  who  criticised  the  conduct  of  the  attack  were  im- 
mediately frowned  down,  and,  to  say  the  least,  sent  to 
*  Coventry'  by  other  papers,  whose  interests  or  opinions 
:ed  them  to  sustain  the  part  our  commanders  took  on  that 


492  THE  AMERICAN  NAVY. 

occasion.  We  were  treated  witli  graphic  accounts  of  the 
effects  of  the  rebel  shot  on  the  Monitor's  turrets ;  and  it 
was  asserted  that  the  most  destructive  shot  that  was  fired 
on  the  occasion  struck  the  Passaic's  turret  near  the  top, 
and,  after  scooping  out  an  immense  portion  of  it,  broke  all 
the  eleven  plates,  and  spent  its  force  on  the  pilot-house, 
which  it  very  nearly  demolished.  This  is  the  spirit,  if  not 
the  exact  letter,  of  the  accounts  furnished.  Now,  we  have 
examined  the  turret  of  the  Passaic  since  her  arrival  here 
for  repairs,  and,  with  all  due  respect  for  the  reporter's 
rhetoric  and  his  sensational  paragraph,  we  must  say  that 
it  is  bosh.  The  shot  did  strike  the  turret,  did  scoop  out  a 
portion,  (which  might  weigh  twenty-five  pounds),  and  did 
strike  the  pilot-house  with  great  force,  besides  breaking 
the  turret-plates  in  its  passage.  But  what  of  all  this? 
"When  iron  meets  iron,  (as  when  Greek  meets  Greek),  then 
comes  the  tug  of  war ;  and  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  a 
shot,  moving  at  the  rate  of  say  1,500  feet  per  second,  will 
strike  an  iron  structure  in  its  weakest  part  and  not  dam- 
age it. 

"  The  simple  facts  of  this  loudly-trumpeted  performance 
of  the  rebels  are,  that  the  shot  which  struck  the  Passaic 
did  not  endanger  her  safety  in  the  least ;  for  all  the  effect 
they  had  on  her  externally,  she  might  have  been  fighting 
away  till  this  hour,  and,  in  reality,  have  been  none  the 
worse  for  it.  "We  have  examined  the  shot-marks  on  the 
Passaic,  said  to  be  sixty-eight  in  all,  though  we  did  not 
count  them,  and  find  an  accurate  representation  of  the 
Whitworth  shot  impressed  in  the  turret  in  many  places. 
If  these  much-boasted  projectiles  are  not  able  to  do  any 
greater  damage  than  they  did,  we  may  safely  def}^  all  the 
English  iron-clads  and  their  armaments.  The  Whitworth 
shot,  or  facsimiles  of  them,  in  a  majority  of  cases,  struck 
sideways ;  they  reached  the  turret  in  all  possible  positions^ 
and  show  very  poor  shooting  on  the  part  of  the  rebels. 
There  were  several  bolts  driven  in  on  the  turret,  which 
injured  the  persons  within ;  but  the  majority  of  the  indenta- 
tions and  scars  could  be  covered  by  and  filled  with  a  com- 


THE  AMERICAN  NAVY.  493 

mon  tea-saucer.  These  are,  simply,  the  '  terrible '  effects 
of  the  rebel  shot.  Now,  what  person  possessing  ordinary 
judgment  and  at  all  conversant  with  the  properties  of  iron, 
could  conscientiously  report  that  the  Monitors  were  unable 
to  cope  with  artillery?  For  our  own  part,  we  assert  that 
the  favorable  opinions  hitherto  expressed  in  regard  to  those 
vessels  have  been  greatly  strengthened,  and  we  do  not  hesi- 
tate to  say,  that,  with  the  present  artillery,  they  can  suc- 
cessfully defy  any  fort  or  any  iron-clad  afloat.  So  far  as 
the  impregnability  of  their  armor  is  involved,  we  would 
not  hesitate  an  instant  to  confide  our  personal  safety  to 
the  thickness  of  their  walls.  We  have  no  desire  to  dispar- 
age any  official  in  connection  with  this  subject;  but,  so  far 
as  the  Monitors  being  disabled  (except  temporarily)  in  the 
late  attack  is  concerned,  we  must  avow  our  utter  skepti- 
cism. The  Passaic  is  the  only  iron-clad  sent  ^N'orth ;  ergOy 
the  Passaic  must  be  the  one  most  injured.  What  injuries 
are  those  that  merely  indent  iron  plates !  and  what  ter- 
rible shot  those  must  be  which  strike  and  leave  no  sign 
internally  to  tell  the  story  of  their  spent  force  and  impo- 
tent rage !  We  think  a  much  better  sensational  report 
could  have  been  made  on  the  occasion  by  writing  the  facts : 
How  the  minions  of  the  rebel  government  did  their  utmost 
to  demolish  the  Monitors,  and  how  signally  they  failed ; 
how,  backed  and  aided  by  English  capital  and  skill,  they 
hurled  their  powerful  projectiles  against  the  impenetrable 
iron-clads,  and  were  worsted  in  the  encounter  ;  how  grandly 
those  little  vessels  withstood  the  enemy's  fury ;  and  how, 
saving  one  poor  little  egg-shell  craft,  they  bore  unflinchingly 
the  most  furious  cannonading  that  was  ever  known  in  the 
shortest  space  of  time.  These  features  would  have  been 
worth  commenting  upon ;  and  were  we  in  the  rebels'  situa- 
tion, we  should  prefer  a  naval  assault  to  take  any  shape 
but  that  proceeding  from  a  fleet  of  those  vessels.  Properly 
handled  and  armed,  they  can  defy  any  ship  now  floating ; 
and  improvements  are  being  made  which  will  render  their 
utility  past  all  doubt. 

"  We  have  considered  in  this  light  merely  the  question 


494  THE   AMERICAN  NAVY. 

of  the  impregnability  of  the  Monitors — supposed  to  be  the 
first  requisite  of  a  modern  war  vessel.  That  they  have 
other  objectionable  features,  we  do  not  deny;  but,  taking 
them  as  representatives  of  fighting  machines — ^the  greatest 
ofiensive  power  in  the  very  smallest  compass — ^they  can 
not  be  excelled,  and  the  nation  does  well  to  estimate  them 
among  its  stanchest  defenses. 

"  It  is  singular,  in  viewing  the  effects  of  the  shot  on  the 
Passaic's  turret,  to  note  that  they  exhibit  none  of  the  char- 
acteristics of  a  plunging  fire.  The  shot  that  '  scooped  out 
a  tremendous  portion'  of  the  top  of  the  Passaic's  turret, 
struck  the  pilot-house  at  nearly  the  same  hight,  showing 
that  it  must  have  been  fired  at  point-blank  range,  or  nearly 
so.  So  also  those  that  struck  the  base  of  the  turret — no 
marks  are  visible  on  the  deck  which  would  lead  the  ob- 
server to  suppose  that  the  missiles  were  fired  from  such  an 
elevation  as  the  barbette  of  Fort  Sumter ;  and  we  conjec- 
ture that  the  batteries  on  Morris  Island  and  Battery  Bee 
must  have  taken  a  hand  in  the  engagement,  although  we 
think  it  is  stated  in  the  reports  that  those  batteries  were 
silent." 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  every  form  of  missile,  shot, 
and  shell  which  English  skill  and  capital  could  supply  was 
hurled  at  the  Monitors  in  that  fight,  and  at  short  range, 
and  then,  in  the  light  of  the  foregoing  statement,  judge 
of  their  powers  of  endurance.  Let  it  now  be  supposed 
that  one  of  these  our  smallest  Monitors  were  to  engage 
such  a  ship  as  the  English  Warrior,  and  let  us  observe  the 
combatants.  Let  them  be  placed  so  that  each  is  within 
range  of  the  other's  guns.  The  Monitor  carries  two  guns  ; 
the  Warrior  has  forty.  Of  the  Monitor's  guns,  one  is  a 
fifteen-inch  smooth-bore,  the  other  a  200-pounder  Parrott 
rifle.  The  Warrior  has  twenty-eight  68-pounder  smooth- 
bores and  twelve  100-pounder  Armstrong  rifles.  First 
observe  the  difference  in  the  surface  which  each  presents 
to  the  other's  fire  when  lying  broadside  opposed  to  broad- 
side.   This  would  not  often  be  the  case  in  action,  perhaps, 


*  THE  AMERICAN  NAVY.  495 

but  it  is  the  only  method  of  making  a  comparison.  The 
exact  hight  of  the  Warrior  above  the  water  is  not  known 
to  the  writer.  The  battery  of  the  Gloire  is  said  to  be  six 
feet  above  the  water,  and  the  lower  battery  of  the  ]^or- 
mandie  is  eight  feet,  and  these  are  said  to  be  lower  than 
in  the  English  frigates,  and  too  low  for  service  in  a  rough 
sea. 

Without  pretending  to  entire  accuracy — nor  is  this  nec- 
essary— it  will  probably  be  safe  to  estimate  the  sides  of 
the  Warrior  as  rising  eighteen  feet  above  the  water,  from 
the  water-line  to  the  top  of  her  bulwarks.  She  is  about 
three  hundred  and  eighty  feet  long,  and  her  broadside 
presents,  therefore,  in  round  numbers,  6,800  square  feet  to 
an  enemy's  fire.  The  small  Monitors,  such  as  those  at 
Charleston,  are  two  hundred  feet  long.  Their  decks  are, 
at  most,  it  is  said,  not  more  than  twelve  inches  above  the 
water,  and  this  narrow  strip  of  hull  and  the  turret  are  all 
that  is  exposed.  The  turret  is  about  twenty-two  feet  out- 
side diameter,  by  nine  feet  high,  presenting  a  surface  of 
not  quite  two  hundred  feet.  The  hull  and  the  turret  to- 
gether, then,  ofler  a  surface  of  about  four  hundred  square 
feet  to  fire,  compared  with  the  more  than  6,000  square  feet 
of  the  Warrior's  broadside. 

Here,  then,  is  at  once  an  immense  advantage  in  favor  of 
the  Monitor.  Her  chances  of  being  struck,  at  the  distance 
of  a  mile,  would  be  exceedingly  small,  while  at  that  dis- 
tance the  huge  hull  of  the  broadside  frigate  would  be 
almost  certainly  hit  by  a  majority  of  shots  fired.  It  is 
doubtless  true  that  the  ships  in  action  would  not  often 
thus  be  exposed  broadside  to  broadside;  and  yet  it  would 
seem  that  this  might  be  the  Warrior's  safest  position,  for 
her  bow  and  stern  are  unprotected  with  armor,  and  are  as 
vulnerable  as  any  wooden  ship. 

Let  their  comparative  vulnerability  be  now  considered. 
Experiment  has  conclusively  shown  that  no  gun  now  on 
board  the  Warrior,  or  any  other  European  ship,  can  pierce 
the  turret  of  a  Monitor,  or  even  materially  injure  her  side. 
The  bombardment  from  the  Charleston  forts  has  proved 


496  THE   AMERICAN  NAVY. 

this  beyond  all  contradiction.  A  Monitor,  therefore,  could 
not  be  materially  injured  by  the  Warrior's  guns.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  200-pounder  Parrott  gun  pierces  armor 
like  that  of  the  Warrior  with  ease;  the  shot  from  the 
fifteen-inch  gun  pierced  the  Atlanta's  armor,  and  a  fifteen- 
inch  gun  has  smashed  plates  much  thicker  than  the  armor 
of  the  English  ship ;  and  we  have  the  opinion  of  General 
Barnard,  already  quoted,  that  no  sea-going^  armored  ship 
can  withstand  the  shock  of  a  fifteen-inch  shot. 

All  these  facts  go  to  show  that  the  boasted  Warrior 
would  be  overmatched  by  one  of  our  small  Monitors,  like 
those  at  Charleston.  This  would  inevitably  be  the  case,  if 
she  were  restricted  to  the  use  of  her  guns  only.  But  it  is 
said  that  such  a  frigate  could  easily  run  down  and  sink  a 
Monitor.  It  should  be  remembered  that  the  huge  frigate, 
almost  four  hundred  feet  long,  is  unwieldy,  while  the 
Monitors,  only  half  as  long,  are  easily  maneuvered.  It 
requires,  as  is  said,  fifteen  minutes  to  turn  the  Warrior, 
and  it  may  be  seen,  therefore,  that  it  is  probably  a  very 
difficult  instead  of  an  easy  thing  for  a  long,  heavy  frigate 
to  run  down  a  Monitor.  The  attacking  ship  would  be 
much  more  likely  to  miss  her  foe,  and  receive  the  fifteen- 
inch  and  200-pounder  rifled  shot  at  short  range.  It  is 
true,  a  slow  Monitor  can  not  pursue  and  capture  a  swift 
frigate  like  the  Warrior;  but  when  a  pet  ship  of  the 
English  navy  shall  avoid  a  combat  with  a  diminutive  craft 
like  a  Monitor,  it  will  do  more  to  establish  our  supremacy 
on  the  sea,  than  to  capture  that  frigate  in  battle.  Should 
a  European  iron-clad  ever  visit  our  shores  on  a  hostile 
errand,  it  will  not  endeavor  to  save  itself  from  a  Monitor 
by  flight.     In  such  a  case  the  issue  of  battle  must  be  tried. 

But  the  Warrior  is,  probably,  not  now  the  most  formi- 
dable ship  in  the  English  navy.  As  none  of  those  iron- 
clads have  been  yet  tested  in  battle,  it  is  impossible  to 
judge  correctly  their  comparative  merits.  There  are  some 
new  frigates,  however,  of  about  the  Warrior's  size,  whose 
armor  over  the  battery  is  stated  to  be,  for  one  ^yq  inches, 
for  another  five  and  a  half  inches,  and  for  still  another  six 


THE   AMERICAN  NAVY.  497 

inches  in  thickness ;  and  these  ships  are  reported  to  have 
a  speed  of  about  twelve  knots  per  hour.  This  was  on  the 
trial  trip,  and,  as  with  our  own  vessels,  it  will  be  much 
less  in  actual  service. 

Let  it  now  be  supposed  that  the  most  formidable  one 
of  this  class,  with  an  armor  six  inches  thick  in  the  central 
portion  of  the  ship,  the  vessel  being  of  the  Warrior's  size, 
were  matched  against  one  of  our  new  Monitors,  like  the 
Agamenticus,  the  Monadnock,  or  the  Miantonomoh. 

These  Monitors  have  a  side-armor,  as  is  stated,  of  ten 
and  a  half  inches  in  thickness,  while  the  turrets  are  fifteen 
inches  thick,  ^o  shot  yet  fired,  either  here  or  in  England, 
has  penetrated  such  an  armor  as  this ;  and  such  an  armor 
can  not  be  placed  upon  a  broadside  ship  of  the  common 
form :  it  would  sink  her  at  the  dock.  Between  the  English 
frigate  Minotaur,  part  of  whose  armor  is  said  to  be  six 
inches  thick,  and  such  a  Monitor  as  the  Agamenticus, 
there  would  be  the  same  disparity  before  mentioned,  in  the 
surfaces  exposed  to  shot.  The  Minotaur  is  more  than  four 
times  the  tunnage  of  such  a  Monitor,  and  while  the  deck 
of  the  Monitor  lies  almost  level  with  the  water,  the  Mino- 
taur presents  her  huge  broadside  high  above  the  water-line, 
and  four  hundred  feet  long.  The  Monitor,  besides  having 
this  immense  advantage  in  the  chances  of  being  hit  by 
shot,  is  herself  invulnerable  to  any  cannon  now  in  use; 
while  the  fifteen-inch  gun  she  carries  smashes  through  a 
six-inch  plate  pf  the  best  French  manufacture,  and  her 
Parrott  shot  goes  through  plates  six  inches  and  even  nine 
inches  thick.  How,  then,  will  the  Minotaur  withstand  the 
Monitor's  attack?  ISTothing  is  plainer  than  that  she  can 
not  do  it  with  her  guns.  Can  the  frigate  run  the  Monitor 
down  ?  It  is  useless  to  speculate  upon  the  issue  of  such 
an  experiment.  The  Monitors  are  also  rams  of  a  very 
formidable  kind,  and  the  broadside  frigate,  considering  the 
effect  of  the  Monitor's  guns  at  short  range,  would,  to  say 
the  least,  be  in  as  great  peril  as  the  American  vessel.  But 
if  the  Minotaur  can  not  run  down  such  a  Monitor,  and 
should  choose  to  continue  the  combat,  it  is  a  matter  of 
32 


498  THE   AMERICAN  NAVY. 

certainty  that  slie  would  be  captured  or  sunk.  But  again  : 
suppose  any  European  ship  of  which  we  have  any  account, 
should  engage  the  Dictator,  now  nearly  ready  for  sea. 
Her  side-armor,  more  than  eleven  inches  thick,  and  her 
turret,  fifteen  inches,  can  not  be  pierced  by  any  shot  now 
known. 

She,  too,  lies  almost  level  with  the  water,  presenting  a 
small  mark  to  her  adversary,  and,  with  half  the  tunnage 
of  the  Minotaur,  she  has  engines  of  5,000-horse  power, 
while  English  official  papers,  quoted  in  the  I!^orth  British 
Review,  state  the  horse  power  of  the  Warrior's  engines  at 
1,250,  and  those  of  the  Minotaur  at  1,350.  The  Dictator, 
then,  ought  to  be  much  the  fastest  vessel,  but  this  must 
be  determined  by  trial.  Certainly,  however,  she  can  not, 
with  such  engines,  be  a  slow  ship.  She  is  built  especially 
for  a  ram,  and  she  will  carry  two  guns  of  no  less  power 
than  the  fifteen-inch  gun  and  the  300-pounder  Parrott,  be- 
cause we  know  that  we  have  those  at  command.  But  Mr. 
Ericsson  is  making  his  own  guns  for  this  new  ship,  and 
expects  them  to  be  more  formidable  than  any  now  in  use. 
Should  he  not  succeed  in  this,  we  already  have  cannon  for 
her  that,  in  the  opinion  of  our  best  engineer  officers,  no 
sea-going  ship  can  withstand.  What  chance  would  the 
Minotaur  have  with  the  Dictator? 

Or,  finally,  select  the  most  powerful  broadside  ship  in 
the  English  navy,  and  place  her  by  the  side  of  Mr.  Webb's 
immense  frigate  and  ram  combined,  the  Dunderberg.  Her 
size  is  equal  to  the  Minotaur,  or  nearly  so.  Her  turrets 
can  not  be  penetrated;  her  casemates  and  sides  are  as  well 
protected  as  those  of  the  English  ships;  she  will  have 
engines  of  far  greater  power;  and  her  guns  will  crash 
through  any  armor  that  a  broadside  ship  can  float.  The 
reader  can  judge  what  the  result  of  an  engagement  would 
be  between  any  European  ship  now  known,  and  either  the 
Dictator,  the  Puritan,  or  the  Dunderberg. 

Compared  with  their  tunnage  and  displacement,  these 
ships  have,  by  far,  the  most  powerful  engines  ever  placed 
on  a  vwar  ship.    They  ought  to  be  the  swiftest  armed  ves- 


THE   AMERICAN  NAVY.  499 

sels  afloat.  This  remains  to  be  tried.  Should  they  prove 
so,  however,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  England  and  France  will 
once  more  be  compelled  to  begin  their  navies  anew,  if 
they  intend  to  attack  the  United  States. 

Such  is  the  navy  which  the  United  States  government 
has  created  in  a  little  more  than  two  years ;  and,  gigantic 
and  efficient  as  it  already  is,  it  is  but  the  first  step  in  our 
new  career — only  the  earnest,  the  first  fruits,  of  what  the 
nation  is  capable  of  performing.  American  genius  has  not 
yet  reached  the  limit  of  its  inventive  power,  and  we  have 
no  reason  to  fear  that  it  will  not  hereafter,  as  it  has  hith- 
erto done,  keep  pace  with  the  progress  of  Europe. 

Mr.  Ericsson's  invention  not  only  saved  the  country  in 
an  hour  of  great  peril,  but  it  will  revolutionize  the  struc- 
ture of  war  ships,  for  the  Monitors  and  the  big  guns, 
smooth-bore  and  rifled,  have  rendered  it  certain  that  no 
broadside  ship  can  cross  the  ocean  which  our  vessels  can 
not  sink;  and  Mr.  Webb's  monster  sea-going  ram  seems 
likely  to  present  another  American  idea,  which  will  attract 
the  attention  of  the  world. 

The  government  has  been  severely  criticised  for  con- 
structing so  many  Monitors,  and  no  broadside  and  swift 
vessels.  Events  will  probably  vindicate  the  wisdom  of 
those  who  have  controlled  the  navy.  The  country  needed, 
first  of  all,  not  so  much  swift  ships,  nor  large  ocean  cruis- 
ers, to  match  the  European  navies,  as  batteries,  for  coast 
service,  as  nearly  invulnerable  as  human  skill  and  science 
then  could  make  them. 

This  want  was  undeniably  met  by  the  Monitors  better 
than  it  could  have  been  by  any  other  vessels  yet  known. 
It  needed,  at  the  same  time,  gun-boats  for  the  rivers.  It 
will  be  conceded  that  these  have  done  admirable  service, 
and,  so  far  as  yet  appears,  the  best  of  them  will  be  used 
as  models  for  future  fleets.  The  broadside  type  of  iron- 
clads was  followed  in  the  I^ew  Ironsides,  and,  notwithstand- 
ing she  is  one  of  the  finest  frigates  of  this  class  afloat, 
yet,  as  the  improvements  in  cannon  show  how  easily  her 
armor  can  be  pierced,  no  one  will  regret  that  these  experi- 


500  THE   AMERICAN  NAVY. 

ments  in  artillery  have  been  made  before  we  had  expended 
$250,000,000,  as  England  has  done,  in  constructing  broad- 
side ships.  K  a  fleet  of  iron-clad  broadside  ships  is 
needed  at  any  time  hereafter,  we  can  construct  it  with  all 
the  added  light  derived  from  the  experiments  of  the 
world. 

The  country  needed  swift  wooden  cruisers  for  the  work 
of  the  blockade,  and  the  II'Tavy  Department  has  furnished 
from  its  own  yards  some  of  the  fastest  ships  that  float — 
vessels  that  overhaul  the  swiftest  blockade-runners  that 
ever  left  an  English  port;  and  these  ships  are  the  begin- 
ning of  a  new  class  of  American  ships  which,  in  speed  and 
power  of  armament,  are  not  yet  matched  elsewhere.  Hav- 
ing produced  such  a  navy  in  a  little  more  than  two  years, 
and  which  is  only  the  germ  of  the  future  American  navy, 
with  a  commercial  marine  already  greater  than  that  even 
of  England,  with  unlimited  resources  at  command,  with 
two  great  oceans  washing  a  coast-line  of  thousands  of 
miles,  nothing  seems  too  great  to  anticipate  in  regard  to 
the  future  naval  power  of  America. 

We  want,  however,  no  fleets  for  conquest;  we  have  no 
wish  to  interfere  with  the  affairs  of  other  nations — as  Eng- 
land and  France  have  threatened,  and  still  desire,  in  regard  to 
us — and  enough  is  already  known  to  show  them  that,  until 
some  new  war  ship  shall  be  invented  in  Europe,  no  fleet 
can  be  sent  to  invade  us  that  can  not  be  destroyed  with  the 
means  we  already  have ;  and  we  may  feel  entire  confidence 
that  the  genius  of  our  inventors  and  the  skill  of  our  work- 
men will  hereafter  devise  ships  and  guns  that  will  protect, 
on  every  sea,  the  Stripes  and  Stars,  which  will  represent, 
hereafter,  a  Free  and  Christian  American  IS^ation. 

Since  the  foregoing  chapter  was  written,  letters  have 
been  addressed  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  upon  the 
subject  of  the  Monitors  and  the  fifteen-inch  guns,  by  three 
of  our  most  distinguished  naval  officers — Commodore  K-od- 
gers,  Commodore  Porter,  and  Admiral  Dahlgren — whose 
opinions  are  so  important  that  extracts  from  them  are 


i 


THE   AMERICAN  NAVY.  501 

added  here,  for  the  views  of  sucli  men  in  high  official  sta- 
tions should  be  considered  as  decisive  upon  subjects  with 
which  they  are  perfectly  familiar.  Every  American  will 
feel  encouraged,  in  regard  to  the  present  and  future  of  the 
American  navy,  by  these  letters,  while  they  can  not  fail  to 
make  a  profound  impression  on  Europe. 

In  describing  the  difference  between  the  ordinary  ship 
and  the  Monitor  model,  Commodore  Rodgers  says: 

"  In  the  Ironsides  class,  the  hull  of  a  wooden  man-of-war, 
as  constructed  for  general  purposes,  is  clad  with  iron.  It 
is  true,  some  modification  of  shape  and  increase  of  size  is 
required  to  meet  the  additional  weight  w^hich  she  has  to 
carry;  but  still,  in  essentials,  she  is  a  vessel  of  the  ordi- 
nary model ;  she  has  the  advantage  of  ample  quarters  for 
her  crew,  with  free  access  to  her  decks  in  storms ;  with 
natural  ventilation ;  with  abundance  of  light ;  with  numer- 
ous guns,  giving  her  a  rapidity  of  fire  unattainable  in  a 
Monitor,  and  essential  in  battering  forts ;  and  she  is  as  able 
to  carry  canvas  as  other  men-of-war. 

"  The  Monitor  class,  as  far  as  I  know,  is  new.  K  I  un- 
derstand the  idea,  it  is  to  cut  off  all  the  surface  above 
water,  except  that  which  may  be  necessary  to  flotation,  and 
to  carry  the  guns  in  a  revolving  turret,  or  turrets,  near 
the  center  of  motion,  supported  upon  the  keel  and  kel- 
sons. 

"  The  plans  upon  which  Mr.  Ericsson  has  worked  out 
this  idea  of  his  may  be  modified  by  further  experience ; 
but  the  idea  itself  will  be  employed  while  iron-clad  ves- 
Bels  are  used  in  warfare." 

He  describes  the  advantage  of  the  Ericsson  model  as 
follows : 

"  It  has  these  advantages : 

"  The  Monitor  has  the  least  possible  surface  to  be  plated, 
and  therefore  takes  the  least  possible  tunnage  to  float 
armor  of  a  given  thickness,  or,  with  a  given  tunnage, 


502  THE   AMERICAN  NAVY. 

allows  the  greatest  possible  thickness  of  armor,  and,  con- 
sequently, the  greatest  possible  impregnability.  The  ability 
to  carry  armor  is  proportionable  to  the  tunnage,  but  the 
Monitor  of  844  tuns  has  actually  thicker  plating  than  the 
Ironsides  of  3,480  tuns,  and  than  the  Warrior  of  6,000; 
and  yet  the  Ironsides  and  Warrior  have  only  the  middle 
portion  of  their  hulls  plated,  their  ends  being  merely  of 
wood  without  armor. 

"  The  guns  of  the  Monitors,  near  the  center  of  motion, 
are  supported  upon  the  keel  and  kelsons,  upborne  by  the 
depth  of  water  under  them,  and  carried  by  the  whole 
strength  of  the  hull. 

"In  Monitors  heavier  guns  are,  therefore,  practicable 
than  can  ever  be  carried  in  broadside  out  upon  the  ribs  of 
a  ship. 

"  In  the  Monitors,  concentration  of  guns  and  armor  is 
the  object  sought. 

"  In  them  the  plating  is  compressed  into  inches  of  ele- 
vation; while  in  the  Ironsides  class  it  is  extended  over 
feet;  and  the  comparatively  numerous  guns  distributed 
over  the  decks  of  the  Ironsides  class  are  molded  into  a 
few  larger  ones  in  the  turrets  of  the  Monitors." 

In  speaking  of  the  principle  upon  which  the  Monitors 
are  armed,  he  says : 

"  When  power  enough  is  required  in  the  individual  guns 
to  crush  and  pierce  the  side  of  an  adversary  at  a  single 
blow,  the  most  formidable  artillery  must  be  employed — 
and  fifteen-inch  guns  are  the  most  formidable  which,  so 
far,  we  have  tried ;  but  no  vessel  of  the  Ironsides  class  can 
carry  these  guns,  and  the  Monitors  actually  do  carry  them. 
If  target  experiments  are  reliable,  a  shot  from  a  fifteen- 
inch  gun  will  crush  in  the  side  of  any  vessel  of  the  Iron- 
sides class  in  Europe  or  America.  A  single  well-planted 
blow  would  sink  either  the  Warrior,  La  Gloire,  Magenta, 
Minotaur,  or  the  Bellerophon.'' 


THE  AMERICAN  NAVY.  503 

Commodore  Porter  says,  also,  tliat  the  Monitors  roll 
very  little  in  a  seaway,  and  relates  the  following  incident 
to  show  their  steadiness.  A  bottle  of  claret,  he  says,  re- 
mained standing  for  an  hour  on  the  dinner-table  of  the 
Weehawken  at  a  time  when  no  one  could  stand  on  the 
deck  of  her  convoy,  the  Iroquois,  a  fine  sea-boat,  without 
holding  on  to  the  life-lines. 

Admiral  Dahlgren  declares  that,  to  meet  the  wants  of 
the  government  in  this  war,  the  Monitors  are  far  better 
than  the  broadside  models  adopted  by  France  and  Eng- 
land; and  that,  if  contractors  had  met  the  government 
demand,  every  Southern  port  would,  ere  this,  have  been 
in  our  possession. 

Commodore  Porter  says  that,  with  one  of  our  Monitors, 
he  could  begin  at  Cairo,  and,  going  down  the  Mississippi, 
destroy  every  vessel  we  have  on  the  Western  waters,  unless 
they  should  escape  by  flight. 

Commodore  Podgers  states  his  conclusions  as  follows : 

"  To  sum  up  my  conclusions,  I  think  that  the  Monitor 
class  and  the  Ironsides  class  are  different  weapons,  each 
having  its  peculiar  advantages — ^both  needed  to  an  iron- 
clad navy — ^both  needed  in  war ;  but  that,  when  the  Moni- 
tor class  measures  its  strength  against  the  Ironsides  class, 
then,  with  vessels  of  equal  size,  the  Monitor  class  will 
overpower  the  Ironsides  class ;  and,  indeed,  a  single  Moni- 
tor will  capture  many  casemated  vessels  of  no  greater  indi- 
vidual size  or  speed:  and  as  vessels  find  their  natural 
antagonists  in  forts,  it  must  be  considered  that  upon  the 
whole  the  Monitor  principle  contains  the  most  successful 
elements  for  plating  vessels  for  war  purposes. 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  be,  very  respectfully,  your  obedi- 
ent servant, 

"John  Podgers,  Commodore  TJ,  S,  N. 

"  Hon.  Gideon  Welles,  Secretary  of  the  Navy" 

The  importance  of  these  statements  from  experienced 


504  THE   AMERICAN   NAVY. 

naval  officers,  wlio  have  been  eye-witnesses  of  the  perform- 
ance of  the  Monitors,  and  the  effect  of  the  shot  of  the 
fifteen-inch  guns,  can  not  be  overrated.  They  seem  to  in- 
sure our  nation  from  foreign  attack,  at  least,  until  great 
changes  are  made  in  naval  war.  No  ship  of  the  broad- 
side class,  Commodore  Rodgers  thinks,  can  carry  a  fifteen- 
inch  gun  safely,  while  the  Monitors  do  carry  them;  and 
one  well-directed  shot  from  one  of  these  guns,  he  says, 
would  sink  any  broadside  vessel,  even  the  last  and  most 
powerful  ones  of  England  or  France. 

Every  American  should  reflect  upon  the  bearing  which 
these  facts  have  upon  the  future  of  our  nation.  It  is 
proved,  beyond  dispute,  that  we  can  build  vessels  of  the 
Monitor  class  which  can  traverse,  safely,  the  whole  Amer- 
ican coast,  which  no  artillery  carried  on  a  broadside  ship 
can  penetrate,  while  the  cannon  which  a  Monitor  can  carry, 
and  with  which  even  our  small  Monitors  are  armed,  can 
sink  any  broadside  ship  that  floats. 

The  fleets  of  France  and  England  can  not,  therefore, 
approach  our  coasts  without  almost  certain  destruction. 
Such  a  ship  as  the  Dictator,  or  the  Puritan,  according  to 
the  opinions  stated  by  these  eminent  officers,  would  be 
able  to  destroy  the  whole  iron-clad  navies  of  France  and 
England,  if  their  ships  could  be  encountered  singly,  and 
the  only  danger  from  a  squadron  would  be  that  of  being 
run  down.  The  solution  of  a  mathematical  problem  is  not 
more  certain  than  that  even  such  a  Monitor  as  the  Ca- 
tawba, now  lately  launched  at  Cincinnati,  would  destroy 
any  ship  in  the  British  or  French  navy,  unless  (a  thing 
most  improbable)  she  could  be  run  down  before  she  could 
use  her  guns.  The  side-armor  of  the  Catawba,  a  ship  of 
about  eleven  hundred  tuns,  is  equal  to  ten  inches  of  solid 
iron  on  the  hull  above  the  water-line,  while  her  turret  is 
eleven  inches  thick,  and  she  is,  therefore,  absolutely  invul- 
nerable to  any  artillery  which  a  broadside  ship  can  carry. 

The  government,  then,  has  acted  most  wisely  in  adopt- 
ing the  Monitors  for  its  present  need.  They  have  secured 
vhe  nation  against  foreign  attack,  and  rendered  it  certain 


THE  AMERICAN  NAVY. 


505 


that,  within  the  lines  defended  by  these  impregnable  float- 
ing batteries,  we  can  safely  develop  our  national  life,  free 
from  all  external  danger. 

In  the  mean  time  the  two  finest  broadside  iron-clads  in 
the  world  have  been  built  in  America — the  Ironsides  and 
the  Italian  frigate;  and  we  are  able  to  produce  any  form 
of  vessel  which  the  nation  may  need,  and  to  any  extent 
that  may  be  required. 

In  order  to  give  the  reader  a  complete  view  of  our  navy, 
a  full  list  is  added  here  of  all  the  vessels  in  it  March  12, 
1864.  This  is  from  the  oflicial  catalogue,  published  by  the 
government  in  answer  to  a  resolution  of  the  Senate.  It 
will  be  found  very  valuable  for  future  reference,  as  it  is 
alphabetically  arranged,  and  shows  the  character,  the  size, 
the  rate,  and  the  armament  of  every  one  of  our  national 
ships,  and  the  location  of  each  at  the  time  of  its  pub- 
lication. 


Complete  List  of  the  Vessels  of  the  American  I^avy, 
March  12,  1864. 


RATES. 


FIRST  BATES 


Sailing  ships  of  2,000  tuns  and  upward. 
Screw  steamers  of  2,500  tuns  and  upward. 
Paddle-wheel  steamers  of  2,400  tuns  and  up- 
ward. 
Iron-clad  steamers  of  2,500  tuns  and  upward. 


SECOND  BATES. 

Sailing  ships  from  1,300  to  2,000  tuns. 
Screw  .steamers  from  1,200  to  2,500  tuns. 
Paddle-wheel  steamers  from  1,000  to  2,400 

tuns. 
Iron-clad  steamers  from  1,200  to  2,500  tuns. 
Purchased  screw  steamers  of  1,400  tuns  and 

upward. 
Purcha.'sed  paddle-wheel  steamers  of  1,500 

tuns  ana  upward. 


THIBD  BATES. 


Sailing  .ships  from  700  to  1,300  tuns. 
Screw  steamers  from  600  to  1,200  tuns. 
Paddle-wheel  steamers  from  700  to  1,000 

tuns. 
Iron-clad  steamers  from  600  to  1,200  tuns. 
Purchased  screw  steamers  from  700  to  1,400 

tuns. 
Purchased  paddle-wheel  steamers  from  900 

to  1,500  tuns. 
Receiving-ships. 


FOUBTH  BAT£g. 

Sailing  ships  under  700  tuns. 
Screw  steamers  under  600  tuns. 
Paddle-wheel  steamers  under  700  tuns. 
Iron-clad  steamers  under  500  tuns. 
Purchased  screw  steamers  under  700  tuns. 
Purchased   paddle-wheel   steamers   under 

900  tuns. 
Store  and  supply  vessels. 


Name. 

Rate. 

Class. 

Guns 

Tun- 
nage. 

Station. 

Abraham 

Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 

Paddle-wheel 
Screw 

0 
4 
6 
6 

700 

300 

583 

1,248 

Mississippi  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
East  Gulf  Squadron. 
Supply  Steamer,  W.  Gulf 
Squadron. 

Acacia 

Adela 

Paddle-wheel 
Screw   

Admiral 

506 


THE  AMERICAN    NAVY. 


Name. 


Adolph  Hugel 

Agamenticus 

Agawam 

A.  Houghton 

Alabama 

Albemarle  

Albatross 

Alert 

Alexandria 

Alfred  Robb 

Algonquin  

Allegany 

Althea 

America 

Ammonoosuc 

Anacostia 

Annie..... 

Antelope 

*Antietam  

Antona 

*Arapaho 

Argosy 

Arkansas 

Aries 

Ariel 

Arizona 

Arietta 

Aroostook 

Arthur 

Ascutney 

Ashuelot 

Atlanta 

Augusta 

AugustaDinsmore 
Avenger 

Baltimore 

Banshee 

Beauregard 

Benton 

Ben  Morgan 

Bermuda 

Bienville. 

Black  Hawk 


Rate. 


Fourth 
Second 

Third.. 

Fourth 
Third.. 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Third 

Third 

Fourth 

Fourth 

First 

Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Second 
Fourth 
Second 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Third.. 


Fourth 

Fourth 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Second 
Third.. 
Third.. 
Third.. 
Third. 

Fourth 

Fourth 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Fourth 

Fourth 


Class. 


Schooner. 
Iron-clad 


Paddle-wheel 


Bark 

Paddle-wheel 


Schooner. 


Screw  

Screw 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Screw  

Screw  

Yacht  

Screw  


Screw  

Schooner.., 
Paddle-wheel 

Screw 

Screw 

Screw 

Paddle-wheel 

Screw  

Screw  

Schooner 

Paddle-wheel 


Schooner. 


Screw  

Bark 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Iron-clad  

Paddle-wheel 

Screw  

Ram 


Paddle-wheel 

Paddle-wheel 

Schooner 

Iron-clad 

Ship 


Screw . 


Second  Paddle-wheel 
Third..  Paddle-wheel 


Guns 


4 

10 

2 
10 


2 

2 

4 

10 

10 

1 

3 

10 

4 
1 
6 
20 
4 
8 
8 
6 
7 
1 
6 


5 

1 

16 

0 


Tan- 
nage. 


269 


974 

326 
1,264 

200 

378 
65 
60 
86 

974 

989 
72 

100 
3,200 

217 

27 
173 

2,200 
565 

2,200 
219 
752 
820 
19 
959 


199 

507 

554 

974 

1,030 

1,006 

1,310 

850 

750 

500 

533 

101 

1,033 

407 

1,238 


902 


Station. 


Potomac  Flotilla. 

Building  at  Portsmouth, 
N.  H.,  navy-yard. 

Waiting  for  crew,  at  Ports- 
mouth, N.  H. 

South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Repairing  at  Portsmouth, 
N.  H. 

N.  Atlantic  Squadron  ord- 
nance-ship, Newbern,  N.  C. 

West  Gulf  Squadron. 

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

Building  at  New  York. 

Receiving-ship,  Baltimore. 

Fitting  for  sea,  at  N.  York. 

School-ship,  Newport,  R.  I. 

Building  at  navy-yard, 
Boston. 

Potomac  Flotilla. 

East  Gulf  Squadron. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

West  Gulf  Squadron. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

West  Gulf  Squadron. 

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 

East  Gulf  Squadron. 

West  Gulf  Squadron,  (Mis- 
sissippi Squadron  tempo- 
rarily). 

N.  Atlantic  Squadron  ord- 
nance-ship, Beaufort. 

West  Gulf  Squadron. 

West  Gulf  Squadron. 

Building  at  New  York. 

Building  at  Boston. 

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Waiting  crew  at  N.  York. 

West  Gulf  Squadron. 

Building  at  N.  Albany,  Ind. 

Ordnance  vessel,  Washing- 
ton. 

Fitting  for  service  at  N.  Y. 

East  Gulf  Squadron, 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

North  Atlantic  Squadron 
ordnance-ship. 

Supply  steamer  for  West 
Gulf  Squadron. 

Repairing  at  New  York. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 


THE  AMERICAN  NAVY. 


507 


Name. 

Rate. 

Class. 

Gund 

Tun- 
nage. 

Station. 

Bloomer  

Fourth 
Fourth 

Fourth 
Fourth 

Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Second 

Fourth 

Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Second 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Third.. 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 

First... 
Third.. 

Fourth 

Third.. 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 

Third.. 
Third.. 
Fourth 

Fourth 

Paddle-wheel 
Screw  

2 

1 

6 

1 

6 

6 

4 

26 

1 

1 
5 
6 
2 

10 
2 

11 
2 
0 
2 

11 
6 
2 
2 
3 
7 
4 
4 
2 
1 

8 
10 

6 

2 
9 
3 
2 
4 
8 
5 
0 

10 

13 

6 

1 

180 
103 

196 
1,726 

640 

226 

495 

2,070 

128 

176 

508 

630 

844 

858 

198 

1,395 

1,034 

61 

82 

612 

202 

614 

1,034 

844 

507 

144 

115 

70 

362 

3,000 
974 

606 

970 
974 
203 
614 
607 
1,004 
607 
63 

860 

612 

1,760 

West  Gulf  Squadron. 

Building  at  the  navy-yard, 
Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  (pow- 
der tug). 

West  Gulf  Squadron. 

Store-ship,    Norfolk  navy- 
yard. 

South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Ready  for  sea  at  N.  York, 
(waiting  crew). 

Ready  for  sea  at  N.  York, 
(waiting  crew). 

Waiting  crew  at  N.  York. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
San  Francisco,  California. 

Blue  Light 

Brig 

Brandywine 

Frigate 

Bark 

Brilliant 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Screw  

Screw 

Cactus......... 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Screw  

Calhoun  

Camanche 

Iron-clad  

Screw  

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Ready  for  sea  at  Boston. 
East  Gulf  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
Building  at  East  Boston. 
Building  at  Cincinnati. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron, 

(coal  vessel). 
Building  at  Philadelphia. 
Ready  for  sea  at  N.  York, 

(waiting  crew). 
Ready  for  sea  at  Boston, 

(waiting  crew). 
Building  at  St.  Louis. 
Ready  for  sea  at  N.  York. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
Building  at  South  Boston. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
Navy-yard,    New    York, 

(laid  up). 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
SnDTilv  steamer.  reDftirirnr 

Camellia 

Screw  

Canandaigua 

Canonicus 

Screw  

Iron-clad 

Schooner 

Screw  

Carmita 

Carnation 

Carondelet 

Iron-clad 

Paddle-wheel 

Iron-clad 

Iron-clad 

Iron-clad 

Screw  

Carrabasset 

Casco 

Catawba 

Catskill 

Cavuffa 

Ceres 

Screw  

Champion 

Paddle-wheel 

Schooner 

Ship 

Charlotte 

Chas.  Phelps 

Chattanooga 

Chenango  

Screw  

Paddle-wheel 
Screw  

Cherokee 

Chickasaw 

Iron-clad 

Paddle-wheel 

Iron-clad 

Iron-clad 

Screw  

Chickopee 

Chillicothe 

Chimo 

Chippewa 

Choctaw 

Paddle-wheel 
Screw  

Chocura 

Chotank 

Schooner 

Paddle-wheel 

Iron-clad 

Screw 

Cimarron 

Cincinnati 

Circassian 

Clara  Dolsen 

Paddle-wheel 

1     at  Boston. 
852  Mississippi  Squadron. 

608 


THE  AMERICAN  NAVY. 


Name. 


Rate. 


Class. 


Guns 

Tun- 

nage. 

2 

128 

2 

294 

3 

60 

2 

100 

2 

614 

52 

3,425 

2 

138 

4 

80 

7 

513 

6 

376 

6 

542 

6 

532 

6 

532 

,  6 

513 

6 

650 

9 

955 

5 

512 

11 

1,800 

24 

1,425 

17 

1,607 

8 

2,200 

3 

600 

2 

82 

4 

554 

8 

224 

3 

220 

4 

210 

6 

156 

7 

545 

8 

196 

6 

198 

19 

972 

7 

996 

2 

160 

0 

50 

7 

520 

0 

50 

3 

566 

2 

111 

7 

149 

0 

300 

1 

94 

3 

391 

8 

682 

0 

566 

3 

357 

10 

1,600 

Station. 


Clover  , 

Clyde 

Coeur  de  Lion , 

Cohasset. 

Cohoes 

Colorado 

Columbine  , 

Commodore 

Com.  Barney 

Com.  Hull 

Com,  Jones 

Com.  McDonough. 

Com.  Morris 

Com.  Perry , 

Com.  Read 

Conemaugh , 

Conestoga , 

Connecticut 

Constellation 

Constitution 

Contoocook 

Cornubia , 

Corypheus  

Courier 

Covington 

Cowslip 

C.  P.  Williams 

Cricket , 

Crusader , 

Curlew , 

Currituck  ....  .... 

Cyane 

Dacotah 

Daffodil 

Dahlia 

Dai  Ching 

Daisy 

Dale 

Dandelion 

Dan  Smith 

Darlington 

Dart 

Dawn 

Daylight 

Decatur 

Delaware 

DeSoto 


Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Third.. 

First... 

Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Second 
Second 
econd 
Second 

Fourth 

Fourth 
Fourth 

Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Third.. 

Third.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 

Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 

Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Second 


Screw  

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Screw  

Iron-clad 


Screw 


Paddle- 
Paddle- 
Paddle- 
Paddle- 
Paddle- 
Paddle- 
Paddle- 
Paddle- 
Paddle- 
Paddle- 
Paddle- 
Paddle- 
Sloop... 
Frigate 
Screw  . 


wheel 
wheel 
wheel 
wheel 
wheel 
wheel 
wheel 
wheel 
wheel 
wheel 
wheel 
wheel 


Paddle-wheel 


Sloop 
Ship.. 


Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Schooner 

Paddle-wheel 

Screw  

Paddle-wheel 

Screw 

Sloop 

Screw 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Screw 

Paddle-wheel 
Sloop 

Screw  

Schooner 

Paddle-wheel 

Schooner 

Screw  

Screw  

Sloop 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 


South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
East  Gulf  Squadron. 
Potomac  Flotilla. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Building  at  Greenpoint,  N. 

York. 
Navy-yard,  Portsmouth,  N. 

Hampshire. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron, 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Potomac  Flotilla. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Mediterranean. 
School-ship,  Newport,  R.  I. 
Building  at  Portsmouth,  N. 

Hampshire,  navy-yard. 
Ready  for  sea  at  Boston, 

(waiting  crew). 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
Store-ship,  on  way  to  Pen- 

sacola. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
Potomac  Flotilla. 
Pacific  Squadron. 

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
East  Gulf  Squadron  (ord- 
nance-ship). 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
South   Atlantic    Squadron, 
(quarter-master's  service). 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
San  Francisco,  Cal. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
,East  Gulf  Squadron. 


THE  AMERICAN  NAVY. 


509 


Name. 


Dictator 

Dragon 

Dunderberg 

Eastport 

E.  B.  Hale 

Elk  

Ella 

Ellen 

Emma 

Essex  

Estrella  

Ethan  Allen 

Etlah 

Eugenie 

Eureka 

Eutaw 

Exchange  

Fahkee 

Fairplay 

Farallones 

Fawn 

Fearnot 

Fern 

Fernandina 

Flag 

Flambeau 

Florida 

Forest  Rose 

Fort  Donelson... 

Fort  Henry 

Fort  Hindman.. 
Fort  Jackson.... 

Fortune 

Fox  

Franklin 

Fredonia 

Fuchsia 

Galena 

Galatea 

Gazelle 

Gem  of  the  Sea 

Gemsbok 

Genessee 

General  Bragg. 
General  Lyon... 
General  Pillow. 
General  Price... 


Rate. 


First  .. 
Fourth 
First .. 

Third.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 

Fourth 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Fourth 

Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 

Fourth 
Fourth 

Fourth 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Third.. 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Second 
Fourth 
Fourth 
First .. 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Third.. 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 


Class. 


Iron-clad 

Screw 

Iron-clad 

Iron-clad 

Screw 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Screw  

Iron-clad 

Paddle-wheel 

Bark 

Iron-clad 

Schooner 

Screw  

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Screw 

Paddle-wheel 
Screw 

Paddle-wheel 
Ship 

Paddle-wheel 

Bark 

Screw  

Screw 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Screw 

Schooner 

Screw 

Sloop 

Screw 

Iron-clad 

Screw  

Paddle-wheel 

Bark 

Bark 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 


Guns 

Ton- 

nage. 

2 

3,033 

2 

118 

10 

5,090 

8 

800 

6 

192 

6 

162 

2 

230 

4 

841 

8 

350 

12 

614 

5 

438 

9 

566 

2 

614 

1 

150 

1 

50 

10 

955 

7 

211 

3 

699 

7 

166 

6 

382 

7 

174 

1 

1,012 

0 

60 

8 

297 

8 

963 

5 

900 

7 

1,261 

8 

260 

5 

900 

7 

619 

7 

286 

7 

1,770 

2 

350 

2 

80 

50 

3,684 

0 

800 

3 

180 

14 

738 

11 

1,244 

6 

117 

6 

371 

7 

622 

8 

803 

2 

950 

2 

468 

2 

38 

3 

633 

Station. 


Building  at  New  York. 
Potomac  Flotilla. 
Building  at  New  York. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
Potomac  Flotilla. 
South   Atlantic   SquadroI^ 

(laid  up). 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Building  at  St.  Louis. 
East  Gulf  Squadron, 
Potomac  Flotilla. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

Pacific  Squadron,  store- 
ship,  Acapulco. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

Store-ship,  W.  Gulf  Squad- 
ron. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Repairing  at  New  York. 

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

Fitting  for  sea  at  Boston. 

East  Gulf  Squadron. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Building  at  Boston. 

East  Gulf  Squadron. 

Building  at  Portsmouth,  N. 
H.,  navy-yard. 

Pacific  Squadron,  store-ship 
at  Callao. 

Potomac  Flotilla. 

At  Baltimore. 
West  India  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
East  Gulf  Squadron. 
West  India  Squadron. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 


510 


THE  AMERICAN  NAVY. 


Name. 


G.  W.  Blunt 

George  Mangham 

Geranium 

Gertrude 

Gettysburg 

Glasgow 

Glaucus 

Glide 

Gov.  Buckingham. 
Grampus 

Grand  Gulf 

Granite 

Granite  City 

Great  Western 

*Guerriere 

Hartford 

Harvest  Moon 

*Hassalo 

Hastings 

Heliotrope 

Hendrick  Hudson 
Henry  Brinker..., 

Henry  Janes , 

Hetzel 

Hollyhock 

Home 

Honduras 

Honeysuckle  

Hope 

Horace  Beals 

Howquah  

Hunchback , 

Huntsville  

Huron 

Hyacinth 

Hydrangea 

Ida 

Idaho 

♦Illinois  

Independence 

Ino 

Ion 

Iosco 

Iris 

Ironsides,  jr 

Iroquois , 

Itasca , 

luka , 


Rate. 


Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Third 

Fourth 

Third.. 

Fourth 

Third. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Second 

Second 

Fourth 

Second 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Third 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Third 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 
First. 
Second 
Third 

Third 
Fourth 

Third, 

Fourth 
Fourth 


Class. 


Guns 


Schooner  

Schooner 

Paddle-wheel 

Screw 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Screw  

Paddle-wheel 

Screw 

Paddle-wheel 


Screw  

Sloop 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Screw  


Screw  

Paddle-wheel 

Screw  

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Screw  

Screw  

Schooner... 

Paddle-wheel 

Paddle-wheel 

Screw 

Paddle-wheel 

Screw 

Schooner... 
Barkantine  ... 

Screw 

Paddle-wheel 

Screw 

Screw 

Paddle-wheel 
Screw  


Screw  .. 
Screw  .. 
Screw  .. 
Frigate . 


Ship 

Paddle-wheel 


Paddle-wheel 


Screw 
Bark... 


Third..  Bark.. 
Fourth  Bark... 
Third-.'Screw 


2 
5 
3 
8 
5 
6 
11 
6 
6 
0 

11 
1 

7 

3 

20 

28 
3 
8 
8 
1 
6 
1 
3 
2 
3 
3 
3 
2 
1 
2 
4 
7 
4 
4 
0 
2 

1 

8 
20 
50 

11 
0 

10 

2 
0 

9 
4 
4 


Tun- 


121 
274 
222 
350 
726 
252 
1,244 
232 
886 
300 

1,200 

75 

315 

800 

2,200 

1,900 
546 

2,200 
293 
238 
460 
108 
261 
301 
300 
713 
376 
234 
134 
296 
397 
617 
817 
607 
60 
224 

104 
2,600 
2,200 

2,257 

985 
230 

974 

159 
200 

1,016 
607 
940 


Station. 


South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
Fitting  for  sea  at  N.  York. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Receiving-ship,  Cincinnati, 

Ohio. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 


West  Gulf  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 
Waiting  crew  at  N.  York. 
East  Gulf  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
East  Gulf  Squadron. 
East  Gulf  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
New  York. 

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
East  Gulf  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
Ready  for  sea  at  N.  York, 

(waiting  crew). 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
Building  at  Brooklyn. 

Receiving-ship,  navy-yard, 
Cal. 

Hampton  Roads. 

Mississippi  Squadron,  (Re- 
ceiving-ship, Cairo). 

Ready  for  sea  at  Boston, 
(waiting  crew). 

South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

South  Atlantic  Squadron, 
(store  vessel). 

Repairing  at  Baltimore. 

West  Gulf  Squadron. 

Waiting  crew  at  N.  York 


THE  AMERICAN  NAVY 


511 


Name. 


Rate. 


Class. 


Guns 


Tun- 
nage. 


Station. 


Ivy. 


Jacob  Bell 

J.  C.  Kulin 

James  L.  Davis... 
Jas.  S.  Chambers.. 

Jamestown 

James  Adger.  .. 
Jasmine 


Fourth 


Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Third. 

Third 

Fourth 


Paddle-wheel 

Paddle-wheel 

Bark 

Bark 

Bark 

Sloop  

Paddle-wheel 
Sloop 


50  Mississippi  Squadron. 


♦Java 

John  Adams 

Jno.  L.  Lockwood.. 

John  Griffith 

John  Hancock 

J.  N.  Seymour 

John  P.  Jackson... 

Jonquil 

Judge  Torrence... 

Julia 

Juliet 

Juniata 


Kalamazoo. 


Kanawha 

Kansas 

Katahdin 

Kearsarge 

Kennebec 

Kensington 

Kenwood 

*Keosauqua 

*Kewaydin 

Keystone  State. 

Key  West 

Kickapoo 

Kineo 

Kingfisher 

King  Philip 


Kittatinny. 
Klamath ... 
Koka 


Lackawanna 

Lafayette 

Lancaster 


Larkspur 
Laurel .... 
Lehigh.... 
Lenapee  . 
Leslie  ..... 


Second 
Third. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Second 

First  . 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Third 

Fourth 

Third 

Fourth 

Second 

Second 

Third 

Fourth 

Third. 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 
Third. 
Third. 

Second 

Third 

Second 


Screw 

Sloop 

Paddle-wheel 

Schooner 

Screw  

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Screw 

Paddle-wheel 

Sloop 

Paddle-wheel 
Screw  


Iron-clad , 


Screw  

Screw  

Screw  

Screw  

Screw  

Screw  

Paddle-wheel 

Screw 

Screw 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Iron-clad.., 

Screw  

Bark 

Paddle-wheel 


Schooner. 
Iron-clad . 
Iron-clad 


Screw  

Paddle-wheel 
Screw  


Fourth 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Third.. 
Fourth 


Screw 

Paddle-wheel 

Iron-clad 

Paddle-wheel 
Screw 1 


4 
8 

7 
8 
6 
4 
6 
8 
20 
13 
9 
4 
6 
7 
0 

6 
2 
2 

14 

8 

30 

2 

0 

2 

10 


229 
888 
461 
401 
985 
1,151 
122 

2,200 
700 
180 
246 
382 
133 
777 
90 
700 
10 
157 

1,240 

3,200 

607 

593 

507 

1,031 

507 

1,052 

232 

2,200 

2,200 

1,364 

207 

970 

507 

450 

600 

421 
614 
614 

1,533 
1,000 
2,362 

125 
50 
844 
974 
100 


Potomac  Flotilla. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
East  Gulf  Squadron. 
East  Gulf  Squadron. 
East  Indies. 

Repairing  at  Philadelphia. 
Tender  to  Pensacola  navy- 
yard. 

South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
Navy-yard,  San  Francisco. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
East  Gulf  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
Repairing  at  Philadelphia. 

Building    at    navy-yard, 

New  York. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
Special  service. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
Repairing  at  New  York. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 


North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
Building  at  St.  Louis. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Attached    to    navy-yard, 

Washington. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
Building  at  Cincinnati. 
Building  at  Camden. 

West  Gulf  Squadron. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

Pacific    Squadron,    (Flag- 
ship). 

South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Building  at  New  York. 

Navy-yard,  Washington, 
(Tender). 


512 


THE   AMERICAN   NAVY. 


Name. 

Rafe. 

Class. 

Guns 

Tun- 
nage. 

Station. 

Lexington 

Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Fourth 

Second 

Third.. 
First... 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Third.. 
Second 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Fourth 

Third- 
Third.. 

Fourth 
Fourth 

Fourth 
Third.. 
Third.. 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Third,. 
Second 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Third.. 
First... 

Second 

Paddle-wheel 
Screw 

7 
2 
6 
4 
7 
6 

13 
0 

16 

10 
10 
6 
8 
2 
3 
2 
2 
8 
6 
6 
2 
2 
2 
8 
8 
2 
3 
6 

10 
10 

3 
6 

2 
7 

10 
9 
2 
6 

10 
6 
8 
4 

18 
7 
0 
4 

10 

62 

20 

448 
129 
177 
151 
861 
295 
627 
68 

1,341 

974 

3,200 

843 

832 

1,034 

'627 

1,034 

1,034 

2,200 

786 

607 

170 

479 

115 

666 

207 

344 

757 

1,155 

974 
974 

182 
693 

350 
791 
974 
776 
187 
684 
974 
221 
730 

1,564 
682 
386 
60 
970 
974 

3,307 

2,200 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

Tender  to  New  York  navy- 
yard. 

Practice-ship,    Newport, 
Rhode  Island. 

Fitting   for  sea,  Baltimore. 

Building,  navy-yard,  N.  Y. 

Waiting  crew  at  N.  York. 

South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Building  at  Jersey  City. 

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Building  at  Pittsburg. 

Building  at  Jersey  City. 

Lilac 

Linden  

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Screw  

Little  Rebel 

Lodona 

Louisiana 

Screw  

Louisville 

Iron-clad 

Screw  

Lupin 

Macedonian 

Sloop 

Mackinaw 

Paddle-wheel 
Screw  

Madawaska 

Magnolia 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Iron-clad 

Paddle-wheel 

Iron-clad 

Iron-clad 

Screw  

Mahaska 

Mahopac 

Malvern 

Manayunk  

Manhattan 

*Manitou 

Maratanza 

Paddle-wheel 
Screw  

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Repairing  at  New  York. 

Building  at  New  York. 

Building  at  Pittsburg. 

East  Gulf  Squadron. 

Naval  Academy,  Newport. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

West  Gulf  Squadron. 

South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Supply  steamer  for  South 
Atlantic  Squadron. 

Waiting  for  crew  at  Boston. 

Ready  for  sea  at  N.  York, 
(waiting  crew). 

Potomac  Flotilla. 

New  York,  (receiving  en- 
gines). 

Building  at  Boston. 

South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Waiting  crew  at  N.  York. 

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Repairing  at  New  York. 

Fitting  for  sea  at  N.  York. 

West  Gulf  Squadron. 

West  Gulf  Squadron. 

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Building,  navy-yard,  N.  Y. 

On  the  Lakes,  (Erie,  Penn.) 

South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

Building  at  St.  Louis. 

Building,  Bordentown,  N.J. 

North  Atlantic  Squadron, 
(Flag-ship). 

Marblehead 

Maria 

Screw  

Marietta 

Iron-clad 

Screw  

Marigold 

Marion 

Sloop  

Marmora 

Paddle-wheel 

Schooner 

Screw  

Maria  A.  Wood... 

Mary  Sanford 

Massachusetts 

Screw  

Massasoit 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Schooner 

Screw 

Mattabesett 

Matthew  Vassar.. 
Maumee 

Mayflower 

Screw 

Memphis 

Screw 

Mendota 

Paddle-wheel 
Screw 

Mercedita 

Mercury 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

[ron-clad 

Paddle-wheel 
Bark 

Merrimac 

Metacomet 

Meteor 

Miami 

Miantonomoh 

Michigan 

Midnight 

Paddle-wheel 

[ron-clad 

Paddle-wheel 
Screw 

Milwaukie 

Mingoe 

Minnesota 

•Minne  tonka 

Screw 

THE  AMERICAN  NAVY. 


513 


Name. 

Rate. 

Class. 

Guns 

Tun- 
nage. 

Station. 

Mistletoe 

Fourth 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Second 
Second 

Second 
Second 
Second 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Second 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Second 
Fourth 
Fourth 

Third.. 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Fourth 

Third.. 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Third.. 
Third.. 
Third.. 
First... 
Fourth 
Fourth 

Fourth 
First... 

First... 
Fourth 
Fourth 
First... 
First... 

Fourth 

Fourth 
Fourth 

Paddle-wheel 

Iron-clad 

Screw 

0 
2 
9 
7 
10 
4 

8 

10 

12 

2 

1 

6 

7 

6 

6 

8 

14 

6 

6 

10 
0 
7 

2 
4 
2 
2 
2 
6 
1 

2 

6 

2 

2 

11 

11 

10 

0 

6 

6 
10 

20 
6 

1 
84 
15 

1 

2 
9 

50 

614 

459 

994 

1,030 

1,564 

2,200 

1,080 

1,378 

844 

87 

787 

655 

189 

513 

2,200 

512 

625 

500 

1,030 

50 

541 

844 
340 
844 
614 
101 
809 
1,046 

614 

250 

614 

523 

1,244 

1,244 

3,200 

50 

948 

157 
2,633 

3,486 

221 

379 

2,805 

4,682 

1,000 

350 
476 

Mississippi  Squadron. 
Building  at  New  York. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Special  service. 
Building  at  New  York. 
Building    at    navy-yard, 
Philadelphia. 

Modoc 

Mohawk 

Mohican 

Screw  

Mohongo 

Paddle-wheel 
Iron-clad 

Screw 

Monadnock 

*Mondamin 

Monocacy 

Paddle-wheel 
Screw 

Building  at  Baltimore. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
San  Francisco,  California 

Monongahela 

Montauk 

Iron-clad 

Screw  

Monterey 

Montgomery 

Monticello 

Screw 

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron.. 

Screw  

Moose  

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Screw  

Morse  

*Mosholu 

Mound  City 

Mount  Vernon 

Iron-clad 

Screw  

Mississippi  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron.. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Building  at  Boston. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 

South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 

South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Building  at  Wilmington. 

West  Gulf  Squadron. 

Pacific  Squadron. 

West  India  Squadron,  coal- 
ship.  Cape  Haytien. 

Building  at  AVilliamsburg.. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

Building  at  East  Boston. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

West  India  Squadron. 

Waiting  crew  at  N.  York.. 

Building,  navy-yard,  Phil. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

Supply  steamer.  North  At- 
lantic Squadron. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

Fitting  at  Portsmouth,  N.. 
H.,  for  a  store  vessel. 

South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

West  Gulf  Squadron. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

On  stocks  at  Sackett's  Har.- 

Mt.  Washington... 
Muscoota 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Screw  

Nahant... 

Iron-clad 

Paddle-wheel 

Iron-clad 

Iron-clad 

Screw  

Screw 

Nansemond 

Nantucket 

Napa 

Narcissus 

Narragansett 

National  Guard... 

Ship 

Naubuc  

Iron-clad 

Paddle-wheel 

Iron-clad 

Iron-clad 

Naumkeag 

Nausett 

Neosho 

Neptune 

Nereus  

Screw 

Neshaminy 

Screw 

Nettle 

Paddle-wheel 
Screw   

Newborn 

New  Era 

Paddle-wheel 
Ship 

New  Hampshire... 

New  Ironsides 

New  London 

Iron-clad 

Screw  

New  National 

New  Orleans  

Paddle-wheel 
Ship 

Niagara 

Screw  

Ready  for  sea  at  N.  York,. 
(waiting  crew). 

West  Gulf  Squadron,  coal- 
ship. 

Building  at  Chester. 

North  At.l>i.nt.ir»  Sninidronv     • 

Nightingale 

Nina 

Ship 

Screw 

Niphon 

Screw 

It 

33 

514 


THE  AMERICAN  NAVY. 


Name. 


Rate. 


Guns 


Tan- 
nage. 


Station. 


Nipsic 

Nita 

Norfolk  Packet, 
North  Carolina, 

Norwich 

Nyack 

Nyanza 

Octorara 

Ohio 

Oleander 

0.  H.Lee 

0.  M.  Pettit 

Oneida 

Oneoto 

Onondaga 

♦Ontario 

Onward 

Orvetta 

Osage  

Osceola 

Ossipee 

Otsego 

Ottawa 

Ouachita 

Owasco 

Ozark 

Pampero 

Panola 

Pansy 

Para 

Passj 

Passaic 

Patapsco 

Paul  Jones ... 
PaulJonesJr 

Pawnee 

Pawpaw 

Pawtuxet 

Pembina 

Penobscot 

Penguin 

Pensacola 

Peoria 

Peosta 

Pequot 

Perry 

Petrel 

Philadelphia 

Philippi  

Pilgrim 

Pink 


Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Third 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Third.. 

Third.. 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Third.. 

Third.. 

Second 

Second 

Third. 

Fourth 

Third.. 

Third.. 

Second 

Third 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Third 

Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
First .. 

Third.. 
Third.. 
Third.. 
Fourth 

Second 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Second 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 


Screw , 

Paddle-wheel 
Schooner.. 

Ship 

Screw , 

Screw , 

Paddle-wheel 

Paddle-wheel 

Ship 

Paddle-wheel 
Schooner  .. 
Paddle-wheel 

Screw  

Iron-clad  . 
Iron-clad .. 

Screw , 

Ship 

Schooner.. 
Iron-clad .. 
Paddle-wheel 

Screw  , 

Paddle-wheel 

Screw  

Paddle-wheel 

Screw  , 

Iron-clad .. 


Ship , 

Screw , 

Paddle-wheel 
Schooner.., 
Iron-clad .. 


Iron-clad  ., 
Iron-clad  .. 
Paddle-wheel 
Steam  launch 


Screw 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Screw 

Screw 

Screw 

Screw....... 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Screw 

Brig 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Screw 

Screw 


6 
4 
5 
6 
6 
7 
6 

10 

17 

2 

3 

2 

10 

2 

4 

20 

9 

3 

2 

10 

13 

10 

5 

14 

4 

2 

6 
4 
0 


693  South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
210  East  Gulf  Squadron. 
349  South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
2,633  Receiving-ship,  New  York. 
431  South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
693  Building  at  New  York. 
203  West  Gulf  Squadron. 

829  West  Gulf  Squadron. 
2,757  Receiving-ship,  Boston. 

263  South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

199  West  Gulf  Squadron. 

165  South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
1,032  West  Gulf  Squadron. 
1,034  Building  at  Cincinnati. 
1,250  Preparing  for  sea  at  N.  Y. 
2,200 

874  Special  cruise. 

171  West  Gulf  Squadron. 

623  Mississippi  Squadron. 

974  Waiting  crew  at  Boston. 
1,240  West  Gulf  Squadron. 

974  Building  at  New  York. 

507  South  Atlantic  Squadron, 

720  Mississippi  Squadron. 

607  West  Gulf  Squadron. 

678  Mississippi  Squadron. 

1,375  West  Gulf  Squadron. 

607  West  Gulf  Squadron. 
60  Mississippi  Squadron. 

190  South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

3,200  Building     at     navy-yard, 

Portsmouth,  N.  H. 

844  South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

844  South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

863  South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
30  South   Atlantic   Squadron, 
(Tender). 
1,289  South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

175  Mississippi  Squadron. 

974  Building  at  Providence. 

607  West  Gulf  Squadron. 

607  West  Gulf  Squadron. 

389  West  Gulf  Squadron. 
2,168  West  Gulf  Squadron. 

974  Building  at  New  York. 

233  Mississippi  Squadron. 

693  North  Atlantic  Squadron. 

280  South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

226  Mississippi  Squadron. 

500  South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

311  Fitting  for  sea  at  Boston. 

170  Building  at  Wilmington. 

184  Waiting  crew  at  N.  York. 


THE  AMERICAN  NAVY. 


515 


Name. 


Rate. 


Glass. 


Guns 


Tun- 


Station. 


Pinta 

♦Piscataqua  .. 

Pittsburg 

Pocahontas 

Pompanoosuc 


Pontiac... 
Pontoosuo 

Poppy 

Portfire.... 


Port  Royal. 
Portsmouth. 
Potomac 


Potomska.. 
Powhatan , 


Prairie  Bird 

Primrose 

Princess  Royal. 

Princeton 

Proteus 

Puritan 


Pursuit 

♦Pushmataha 


Quaker  City.... 

Queen  

Queen  City 

Quinsigamond , 


Racer 

Rachel  Seaman 

Rattler 

Red  Rover 

Reindeer 

Release 


Relief 

Renshaw. 


Rescue 

Resolute 

Restless 

Rhode  Island 
Richmond  .... 

Roanoke 

Rocket 


Eodolph . 
Roebuck. 
Roman... 


Fourth 

Second 

Third 

Fourth 

First. 

Third.. 

Third 

Fourth 


Screw  .... 
Screw  .... 
Iron-clad 

Screw 

Screw  .... 


Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Screw  


Fourth  Screw 


Third. 
Third. 
Fourth 

Fourth 
First .. 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Third. 

Third. 

Third. 

First .. 

Fourth 
Second 

Second 
Fourth 
Fourth 
First... 

Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 

Fourth 
Fourth 

Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Second 
Second 
First  .. 
Fourth 

Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 


Paddle-wheel 

Sloop 

Frigate 


Screw 

Paddle-wheel 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Screw  

Screw  

Screw 

Iron-clad... 


Bark... 

Screw. 


Paddle-wheel 

Screw  

Paddle-wheel 
Iron-clad  


Schooner 

Schooner 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Bark 


Ship 

Schooner. 


Screw  

Screw 

Bark 

Paddle-wheel 

Screw 

Iron-clad 

Screw  


Paddle-wheel 

Bark 

Ship 


350  Building  at  Chester. 
2,200 

512  Mississippi  Squadron. 

694  Ready  for  sea  at  Phila. 
3,200  Building    at    navy-yard, 
Boston. 

974  Building  at  Philadelphia. 

974  Building  at  Portland,  Me. 

93  North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
103  Building  at  Portsmouth,  N. 

H.,  naw-yard,   (powder 
tug). 
805  West  Gulf  Squadron. 
1,022  West  Gulf  Squadron. 
1,726  West  Gulf  Squadron,  (store- 
ship). 
287  South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
2,415  West  India  Squadron, 
(Flag-ship). 
171  Mississippi  Squadron. 

94  Potomac  Flotilla. 
828  West  Gulf  Squadron. 

990  Receiving-ship,  Philadel'a. 
1,244  Waiting  for  crew  at  N.  Y. 
3,265  Building    at   Greenpoint, 
New  York. 

603  East  Gulf  Squadron. 
2,200 

1,600  North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
630  At  New  York. 
212  Mississippi  Squadron. 
3,200  Building    at    navy-yard, 
Boston. 
252  South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
303  At  New  York. 
166  Mississippi  Squadron. 
787  Mississippi  Squadron. 
212  Mississippi  Squadron. 
327  North  Atlantic,  store-ship, 

Beaufort. 
468  At  Boston,  receiving  stores. 
80  Ordnance  vessel,  Newbem, 
North  Carolina. 
Ill  South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
90  Potomac  Flotilla. 
266  East  Gulf  Squadron. 
1.617  West  India  Squadron. 
1,929  West  Gulf  Squadron. 
3,436  North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
127  Ordnance  vessel,   N.  York 

navy-yard. 
217  West  Gulf  Squadron. 
455  East  Gulf  Squadron. 
850  North  Atlantic  Squadron. 


516 


THE  AMERICAN  NAVY. 


Name. 


Rate. 


Class. 


Guns 


Tun- 
nage. 


Station. 


Romeo 

Rosalie 

Rose 

R.  R.  Cuyler 

Sabine 

Saco 

Sacramento 

Sagamore 

Saginaw 

Sandusky..  

Sangamon 

San  Jacinto... 

Santee 

Sam  Houston 

Samson 

Samuel  Rotan 

Santiago  de  Cuba. 

Sarah  Bruen 

Saranac 

Saratoga 

Sassacus 

Saugus  

Savannah  

Scioto 

Sea  Bird ; 

Sea  Foam 

Sebago 

Seminole 

Seneca 

Shakamaxon  

Shamokin 

Shamrock 

Shark 

Shawmut 

Shawsheen 

Shawnee 

Shenandoah 

Shiloh 

Shokokon 

Signal 

Silver  Cloud 

Silver  Lake 

Snowdrop 

Somerset 

Sonoma 

Sophronia  

South  Carolina.... 

Southfield 

Sovereign 

Speedwell 

Springfield 

Squando 


Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 

Third.. 

Second 

Fourth 

Second 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Third 

Second 

Second 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Second 
Fourth 
Second 
Third.. 
Third.. 
Third.. 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Third.. 
Fourth 
First  .. 
Second 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Second 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Third. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Third 


Paddle-wheel 

Sloop 

Screw 


Screw 


Frigate 

Screw  

Screw  

Screw  

Paddle-wheel 
Iron-clad... 
Iron-clad.., 
Screw  


Frigate 

Schooner... 
Paddle-wheel 

Schooner 

Paddle-wheel 

Schooner 

Paddle-wheel 

Sloop  

Paddle-wheel 
Iron-clad ... 

Sloop 

Screw  

Schooner... 

Brig 

Paddle-wheel 

Screw 

Screw 

Iron-clad 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Schooner 

Screw  

Paddle-wheel 

Iron-clad 

Screw  

Iron-clad 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Screw 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Schooner 

Screw 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Screw  

Paddle-wheel 
Iron-clad ... 


6 
1 
1 

12 

52 
8 

14 
4 
4 
2 
2 

14 

49 

1 

0 

3 

10 

3 

13 

22 

10 

2 

7 

5 

1 

4 

10 

9 

4 

4 

10 

10 

0 

6 

3 

2 

10 

2 

6 

6 

6 

6 

2 

6 

7 

3 

8 

7 

0 

2 

6 

2 


175 

28 
96 


1,726 
593 

1,367 
507 
453 
479 
844 


66 
600 
212 

1,567 
233 

1,446 
882 
974 

1,034 

1,726 
507 
57 
264 
832 
801 
507 

3,200 

1,030 
974 
87 
593 
180 
614 

1,378 
614 
700 
190 
236 
212 
125 
521 
955 
217 

1,165 
751 
440 
350 
146 
614 


Mississippi  Squadron. 

East  Gulf  Squadron. 

Ready  for  sea  at  N.  Tork^ 
(waiting  crew). 

Ready  for  sea  at  N.  York, 
(waiting  crew). 

In  ordinary,  Boston. 

Building  at  Boston. 

Special  cruise. 

East  Gulf  Squadron. 

Pacific  Squadron. 

Building  at  Pittsburg. 

South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

East  Gulf  Squadron,  (Flag- 
ship). 

School-ship,  Newport,  R.  I. 

West  Gulf  Squadron. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Repairing  at  Boston. 

West  Gulf  Squadron. 

Pacific  Squadron. 

South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Building  at  Wilmington. 

Instruction-ship,  N.  York. 

West  Gulf  Squadron. 

East  Gulf  Squadron. 

West  Gulf  Squadron. 

West  Gulf  Squadron. 

West  Gulf  Squadron. 

South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Building,  navy-yard,  Phila. 

Building  at  Chester. 

Building  at  New  York. 

South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Building,  Portsmouth,  N.  H, 

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Building  at  East  Boston. 

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Building  at  St.  Louis. 

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

Waiting  crew  at  N.  York. 

East  Gulf  Squadron. 

South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Potomac  Flotilla. 

South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

Building  at  Boston. 

Mississippi  Squadron. 

Building  at  East  Boston. 


THE  AMERICAN  NAVY. 


517 


Name. 


Standish 

fit.  Clair 

St.  Lawrence 

St.  Louis 

St.  Mary's 

Stars  and  Stripes 
State  of  Georgia... 
Stepping  Stones... 

Stettin 

Stockdale 

Stonewall 

Suncook  

Sunflower 

Supply 

Susquehanna  

Suwanee 

Sweetbrier 

Tacony 

♦Tahgayuta 

Tahoma 

Tallahoma 

Tallahatchie 

Tallapoosa  

Tawah 

Teaser  

Tecumseh 

Tennessee 

Tensas 

Thistle 

Thos.  Freeborn.... 

T.  A.  Ward 

Ticonderoga 

Tioga 

Tippecanoe  

Tonawandah 

Triana 

Tritonia 

Tulip 

Tunxis 

Tuscarora 

Tuscumbia 

Two  Sisters 

Tylor 

Umpqua 

TJnadilla 

Union 

Valparaiso 

Vandalia 

Vanderbilt. 


Rate. 


Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 

Third.. 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Third- 
Fourth 
Fourth 
First .. 
Second 
Fourth 

Third- 
Second 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Third.. 
Third.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Second 
Third.. 
Third.. 
Second 
Fourth 
Fourth 


Third.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 

Fourth 
Third.. 

Second 


Class. 


Screw  

Paddle-wheel 
Frigate 


Sloop 

Sloop  

Screw  

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Screw  

Paddle-wheel 

Schooner 

Iron-clad 

Screw  

Ship 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Screw 


Paddle-wheel 

Screw 

Screw 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Screw 

Iron-clad 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Schooner 

Screw 

Paddle-wheel 

Iron-clad 

Iron-clad 

Screw 

Paddle-wheel 


Fourth  Screw 

Third..  Iron-clad 

Third..  Screw 

Third..  Iron-clad 

Fourth  Schooner 

Four  thlPaddle  -wheel 


Iron-clad . 
Screw  .... 
Screw 


Ship.. 
Sloop 


Paddle-wheel 


Guns 


2 

6 

12 

18 
28 
6 
8 
5 
5 
6 
1 
2 
2 
7 

16 

10 

2 

10 
8 
6 

10 
6 

10 
8 
1 
2 
5 
2 
0 
8 
6 

20 
8 
2 
4 
2 
1 

5 
2 

10 
6 
1 

10 

2 
7 
1 

0 
22 

16 


Tun- 
nage. 


350 

203 

1,726 

700 

985 

407 

1,204 

226 

600 

188 

30 

614 

294 

647 

2,450 

1,030 

240 

974 
2,200 
507 
974 
171 
974 
108 


614 

507 

1,114 

402 
700 

3,860 


Station. 


Building  at  Boston. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic   Squadron, 

(ordnance-ship). 
Special  service. 
Pacific  Squadron. 
East  Gulf  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
East  Gulf  Squadron. 
Building  at  South  Boston. 
East  Gulf  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Repairing  at  New  York. 
Building  at  New  York. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

North  Atlantic  Squadron. 


East  Gulf  Squadron. 
Building  at  New  York. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
Building  at  New  York. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
90  Potomac  Flotilla. 
1,034  Preparing  for  sea,  N.  York, 
1,275  West  Gulf  Squadron. 
150  Mississippi  Squadron. 
50  Mississippi  Squadron. 
269  Potomac  Flotilla. 
184  South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
1,533  Ready  for  sea  at  Phila. 

819  East  Gulf  Squadron. 
1,034  Building  at  Cincinnati. 

Building,  navy-yard,  Phila. 
350  Building  at  New  York. 
202  Ready  for  sea  at  N.  York, 

(waiting  crew). 
183  Potomac  Flotilla. 
614  Building  at  Chester. 
997  North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
665  Mississippi  Squadron. 

54  East  Gulf  Squadron. 
676  Mississippi  Squadron. 


Building  at  Pittsburg. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Supply    steamer    for   East 

Gulf  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Receiv'g-ship,  Portsmouth, 

New  Hampshire. 
Repairing  at  New  York. 


518 


THE  AMERICAN  NAVY. 


Name. 


Valley  City 

Vermont 

Vicksburg 

Victoria 

Victory 

Vincennes  

Vindicator 

Violet 

Virginia 

Virginia 

Wabash 

Wachusett 

Wampanoag 

Wamsutta 

♦Wanaloset 

Wanderer 

Wassuc 

♦Watauga 

Wateree  

Water  Witch 

Wave 

Waxsaw 

Western  World.... 

Whitehead 

Wild  Cat 

♦Willamette 

Wm.  Bacon 

Wm.  Badger 

Wm.  G.  Putnam... 

Wm.  H.  Brown 

Wm.  G.  Anderson. 

Winnebago 

Winnipec 

Winona 

Winooski 

Wissahickon 

Wyalusing 

Wyandank 

Wyandotte 

Wyoming 

Yankee 

Yantic 

Yazoo 

Young  America... 

Young  Rover 

Yuma  

Zouave  


Rate. 


Fourth 
Third.. 

Third,. 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Third.. 

Third 

Fourth 

First 

Fourth 

First 

Third 

First. 

Fourth 

Second 

Fourth 

Third 

Second 

Third 

Fourth 

Fourtl 

Third.. 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Second 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Third.. 

Second 

Fourtl; 

Third.. 

Fourth 

Third.. 

Fourth 

Fourth 

Third. 

Fourth 
Fourth 
hird.. 
Fourth 
Fourth 
Third.. 


Glass. 


Guns 


Screw . 
Ship... 


Screw  

Screw  

Paddle-wheel 

Sloop 

Ram 

Screw 

Ship 

Screw  


Screw 

Screw 

Screw  

Screw  

Screw  

Schooner 

Iron-clad 

Screw  

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Iron-clad 

Screw 

Screw 

Sailing  vessel 

Screw  

Schooner 

Ship 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Bark 

Iron-clad 

Paddle-wheel 

Screw 

Paddle-wheel 

Screw 

Paddle-wheel 
Paddle-wheel 

Screw  

Screw  


Paddle-wheel 

Screw 

Iron-clad 

Screw  

Screw  

Iron-clad 


10 
4 

2 

84 

7 

48 

10 
8 
6 
8 
3 
2 
8 

14 
4 
6 
2 
6 
4 
1 
8 
5 
1 
4 
1 
8 
4 

10 
6 

10 
5 

10 
3 
6 
7 

4 
5 
2 
2 
5 
2 


Tan- 
nage. 


190 
2,633 


254 
160 
700 
750 
146 
2,638 
581 

3,274 

1,032 

3,200 

270 

2,200 

300 

614 

2,200 

974 

378 

229 

614 

441 

136 


183 
334 
149 
235 
593 
970 
1,030 
507 
974 
507 
974 
399 
458 
997 

328 
593 
614 
173 
418 
614 


Fourth  Screw 2       127  North  Atlantic  Squadron. 


Station. 


North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
South   Atlantic    Squadron, 
(store  and  receiv'g  ship). 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
Building,  N.  Albany,  Ind. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
On  the  stocks,  Boston. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 

South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Coast  of  Brazil. 
Building,  navy-yard,  N.  Y 
Repairing  at  Philadelphia, 

East  Gulf  Squadron. 
Building  at  Portland,  Me. 

On  the  way  to  the  Pacific. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
Building  at  Baltimore. 
Potomac  Flotilla. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 

Potomac  Flotilla. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Mississippi  Squadron. 
West  Gulf  Squadron. 
Building  at  St.  Louis. 
Building  at  Boston. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Building  at  New  York. 
South  Atlantic  Squadron, 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Potomac  Flotilla. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
East  Indies. 

Potomac  Flotilla. 
Building,  navy-yard,  Phil. 
Building  at  Philadelphia. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
North  Atlantic  Squadron. 
Building  at  Cincinnati. 


*  Machinery  contracted  for  in  November,  1863.    Hulls  about  being  commenced. 


THE  ARMIES  01  ENGLAND,  FEANCB,  AND  AMERICA.         519 


CHAPTER  XXXYIII. 

THE  ABMIES  OP  ENGLAND,  PRANCE,  AND  AMERICA. 

The  reported  numerical  strengtli  of  the  armies  of  the 
four  great  powers  which  are  under  discussion,  is,  in  round 
numbers,  as  follows : 


France,           .... 

600,000 

England, .            .             .            .             , 

200,000 

Russia,            .... 

950,000 

United  States,  North  and  South,  say,   . 

900,000 

These  figures,  though  obtained  mainly  from  official 
sources,  do  not,  of  course,  express  the  exact  truth.  They 
merely  present,  in  a  general  way,  the  relative  military 
strength  of  these  nations.  Each  of  them  could  command 
a  far  greater  number  to  resist  an  invasion  of  its  territory, 
while  neither  could  send  from  home,  on  distant  service, 
one-fourth  of  the  number  here  set  down.  France  and 
Russia  could  maintain  large  armies  on  the  fields  of  Europe, 
but  neither  they,  nor  any  other  power,  could  send  a  for- 
midable force  to  operate  here. 

Still,  with  France  controlling  Mexico  and  Central  Amer- 
ica, it  might  be  possible,  at  any  time,  with  a  French  army 
as  a  nucleus,  to  assemble  a  very  formidable  force  upon  our 
Southern  borders. 

The  character  of  the  Russians,  as  soldiers,  has  been 
already  considered,  because  Americans  should  know  the 
quality  of  those  who,  alone,  among  all  nations,  can  now 


520    THE  ARMIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA. 

be  regarded  as  our  cordial  friends,  and  whose  interests 
may  yet  ally  them  with  us,  against  the  central  despotisms 
of  Europe. 

The  soldiers  of  France  and  England  have  written  their 
own  history  on  the  battle-fields  of  modern  Europe,  and 
their  distinguishing  traits  are  known  to  all.  I^one  will 
dispute  their  courage  or  their  skill.  Those  who  expect  to 
meet  them  with  success,  must  be  masters  of  the  science 
of  slaughter. 

But  America  is  now,  for  the  first  time,  assuming  the 
character  and  position  of  a  great  military  power.  For 
the  first  time  we  have  gathered  great  armies,  and  have 
fought  battles  on  a  scale  proportioned  to  the  great  con- 
flicts of  Europe.  It  is,  therefore,  important  to  inquire, 
whether  our  armies  and  our  soldiers  have  exhibited  an 
individual,  a  national  character?  Can  we  speak  of  the 
American  soldier  and  the  American  army  as  having  char- 
acteristics of  their  own,  distinctive  and  peculiar?  If  we 
can,  what  are  the  military  traits  of  the  American  nation  ? 
Are  they  such  as  give  us  confidence  in  our  ability  to  meet 
the  troops  of  other  nations  should  they  invade  our  shores  ? 

In  attempting  to  answer  this  question,  it  will  be  assumed 
as  certain,  that  this  rebellion  will  soon  be  over,  and  our 
military  strength  will  be  drawn  from  the  whole  territory 
of  the  Union,  and  from  every  portion  of  the  population. 

This  being  so,  the  armies  of  the  United  States  will, 
hereafter,  be  drawn  from  the  following  elements :  the  white 
population  of  the  ^N'orth,  the  whites  of  the  South,  the 
blacks  both  l^orth  and  South,  and  the  foreign  population. 
The  foreign  element  in  our  armies  requires  but  a  passing 
notice.  These  soldiers  will  certainly  be  equal  to  those  of 
Europe,  while  we  have  every  reason  to  expect  that  those 
who  are  to  come,  like  those  who  are  already  among  us, 
will  exhibit,  under  the  influence  of  free  institutions,  a 
higher  form  of  manhood  than  their  countrymen  who  re- 
main behind. 

When  the  proper  manhood  of  the  blacks  is  fully  ac- 
knowledged, and  their  rights  as  citizens  are  sanctioned  and 


THE  ARMIES  OP  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA.    521 

protected  by  law  and  by  practice,  we  can  easily  draw  from 
them,  at  any  time,  an  army  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand men,  and  perhaps  double  that  number  in  case  of  a 
pressing  emergency.  The  war,  by  the  emancipation  of 
the  slaves,  will  add  this  to  our  eftective  fighting  force,  and 
enough  is  already  known  of  these  soldiers,  from  the  sternest 
experience  of  battle,  to  show  that,  with  proper  encourage- 
ment and  discipline,  they  will  not  be  inferior  to  any. 

Great  injustice  will  be  done  to  the  race  if  we  judge 
them  only  by  what  they  have  done  when  they  have  barely 
escaped  from  the  brutehood  of  slavery,  with  all  its  crush- 
ing influences  still  bearing  them  down;  but  even  in  this 
condition  their  record  has  been  a  noble  one,  and  we  know 
that,  if  we  do  our  duty,  if,  as  a  nation,  we  prove  true  to 
God  and  humanity,  we  shall  have  at  our  disposal  an  im- 
mense force,  which  will  be  invaluable  to  us  should  Louis 
Napoleon  compel  us  to  operate  upon  our  Southern  border, 
or  in  Mexico. 

Two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  stalwart  men,  who  can 
brave  unharmed  both  the  Southern  malaria  and  the  yellow 
fever,  and  guided  by  skillful  officers,  would  present  a  very 
effectual  barrier  to  all  the  schemes  of  France  in  Mexico. 
These  black  soldiers  are  to  form  a  most  important  ele- 
ment hereafter  in  the  American  army  and  navy,  and,  al- 
though their  capabilities  have  not  yet  been  fully  tested,  what 
they  have  already  done  gives  noble  promise  for  the  future, 
and  it  is  perhaps  not  fanatical  to  believe  that  God  has 
delivered  them  just  at  the  time  when  they  will  be  needed 
most  for  the  defense  of  the  country  which  they  have  en- 
riched by  their  toils,  their  blood,  and  their  tears. 

'No  candid  man,  even  at  the  E"orth,  will  deny  that  the 
Southern  troops  have  fought,  in  general,  with  desperate 
courage ;  all  will  confess  that  their  chief  leaders  have  ex- 
hibited skill,  daring,  and  energy,  while  the  fortifications 
of  the  Southern  cities  are,  for  the  purpose  designed,  mas- 
terpieces of  engineering  science.  These  qualities,  these 
talents,  this  skill  and  science,  now  used  for  the  destruction 
of  the  Eepublic,  are  all  American,  and  will  in  the  future 


522    THE  ARMIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA. 

all  be  available  for  the  defense  of  the  country  against  a 
common  foreign  foe.  Probably  no  troops  were  ever  hurled 
with  more  impetuous  bravery  upon  defensive  lines,  than 
was  Lee's  army  at  Gettysburg,  or  Bragg's  at  Chickamauga. 
The  rush  of  the  successive  assaults  was  more  like  the 
spring  of  the  tiger  than  the  march  of  columns,  and  of  a 
tiger  foiled  and  hurled  back,  only  to  spring  again. 

There  is  an  intensity  of  passion  in  the  Southern  charge 
that  gives  the  utmost  possible  eifect  to  the  material  power, 
and  which,  it  is  thought,  will  scarcely  find  a  parallel  in 
the  movements  of  any  of  the  regular  troops  of  Europe, 
Americans  would  not  expect  that  the  veterans  of  Lee  and 
Longstreet  would  be  defeated  by  an  equal  number  of  the 
best  soldiers  of  any  nation  in  Europe.  The  defense  of 
Port  Wagner  was  a  marvelous  instance  of  persistent  he- 
roism, certainly  not  often  surpassed  in  the  history  of  war. 
Such  a  terrible  storm  of  shot  and  shell  as  swept  over  and 
into,  and  tore  through  those  defenses,  man  never  saw 
before,  and  yet  the  garrison  held  bravely  out,  till  forced 
to  evacuate  by  a  regular  siege.  History  surely  has  not 
many  stories  like  that  of  the  defense  of  Sumter,  where 
such  an  immense  work  was  defended  till  its  massive  ma- 
sonry was  all  leveled  with  the  sea,  a  heap  of  rubbish,  and 
yet  the  flag  was  kept  defiantly  hoisted  over  its  founda- 
tion-stones. This  engineering  skill,  and  this  unyielding 
tenacity  of  courage,  are  all  to  be  available  for  the  defense 
of  the  future  American  nation.  They  are  examples  of 
what  the  South  will  do  in  a  better  cause,  and  supported 
by  the  sympathies  and  arms  of  the  IN'orth.  They  admon- 
ish Europe  of  the  reception  which  invaders  will  meet. 

"What  this  fiery  semi-barbarism  which  slavery  has  pro- 
duced will  yet  become,  when  quickened  by  general  intel- 
ligence, and  balanced  and  molded  by  free  institutions,  and 
when  its  energy  springs  from  principle  instead  of  passion, 
does  not  now  appear ;  but  none  can  doubt  that  it  will  be 
a  nobler  and  more  reliable  power  than  it  now  is — a  firmer 
basis  on  which  to  build  a  nation. 

The  Southern   people  have  borne  the  privations  and 


THE  ARMIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA.   523 

hardships  to  which  they  have  been  subjected,  through  the 
desolations  of  war  and  the  rigor  of  the  blockade,  with  a 
firm  endurance  that  awakens  admiration  in  all  who  forget 
the  atrocity  of  their  treason  and  the  savage  cruelty  of 
their  spirit;  and  the  wretched  food  and  clothing  of  the 
rebel  soldiers  often  astonish  our  ^N'orthern  men,  presenting 
an  appearance  of  extreme  hardship  heroically  borne ;  but 
it  may  be  doubted,  perhaps,  whether  the  common  people 
and  the  private  soldiers  suffer  as  severely  as  many  suppose. 
They  know  little  or  nothing  of  the  comforts  and  luxuries 
of  ^N'orthern  homes;  most  of  them  have  lived  in  the  log 
hat  only,  and  have  been  accustomed  to  the  coarsest  food, 
and  to  little  variety  in  that. 

Their  endurance  of  hardship  partakes  more  of  the  sullen 
indifference  of  the  savage  than  the  lofty  heroism  of  the 
cultivated  man;  and  yet,  with  all  needed  deductions,  the 
people  of  the  South  have  exhibited  qualities  which,  when 
cleansed  from  the  defilement  and  curse  of  slavery,  and 
ennobled  by  the  influences  of  freedom,  will  become  a 
mighty  power  in  the  State. 

The  worst  condition  of  the  rebel  soldier  is  not  so  far 
below  his  ordinary  home-life,  as  the  best  aspect  of  a  camp 
is  inferior  to  the  every-day  comforts  of  the  home  of  the 
Northern  laborer;  and,  therefore,  with  far  better  fare,  the 
actual  privations  of  the  i^orthern  soldier  have  been  greater, 
and  the  endurance  which  springs  from  true  heroism  has 
been  more  fully  exhibited  by  the  army  of  the  IS'orth. 

The  true  American  life  is  found  only  in  the  free  States, 
and  the  army  of  the  North  is  the  only  true  representative 
of  the  military  power  of  the  Republic — ^the  American  na- 
tion of  the  future;  because  this  Northern  life-power  will 
assimilate  and  mold  after  its  own  image  the  whole  mate- 
rial of  the  nation.  The  vital  force  of  the  free  States  will 
energize  and  transform  the  whole  population,  and  the 
nation  will  be  quickened,  guided,  and  glorified  by  the 
indwelling  spirit  of  Christian  freedom.  Among  the  pecu- 
liar traits  of  the  real  American  army,  the  most  prominent 
is  its  intelligence.    In  this  respect  it  stands  alone  among 


524    THE  ARMIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA. 

armies.  It  has  been  drawn  from  the  whole  population, 
and  every  class,  and  all  forms  of  business,  and  all  mechan- 
ical arts  have  their  representatives  in  every  I^orthern 
regiment.  Such  an  army  is  not  a  mere  aggregation  of 
human  puppets  or  machines  under  the  direction  of  an 
engineer  in  shoulder-straps,  but  it  is  a  body  of  thousands 
of  individual  thinkers,  combining  thought,  skill,  and  expe- 
rience, for  a  common  purpose.  A  majority  of  E'orthern 
regiments  could  furnish  from  their  ranks  mechanics  that 
could  build  or  repair  a  locomotive,  or  construct  a  bridge 
or  a  steamboat,  or  repair  a  watch;  and  with  them  are 
associated  lawyers,  and  physicians,  and  ministers,  printers, 
editors,  painters,  and  authors.  'No  army  ever  gathered 
before  has  embodied  such  an  amount  of  educated,  think- 
ing power,  and  such  a  variety  of  gifts  and  attainments. 

It  is  not  only  a  fighting  engine,  but  it  is  a  thinking  ma- 
chine of  the  highest  order.  And  precisely  those  qualities 
from  which  the  aristocrats  of  Europe,  and  the  slave-lorda 
of  the  South,  predicted  its  ruin,  have  made  it  the  most 
admirable  army  of  the  world.  They  predicted  that  such 
men  would  not  fight.  The  slave-owner,  blinded  by  his 
own  false  system,  believed  that  common  soldiers  must  be 
half-brute,  half-savage,  in  order  to  be  brave,  and  that  an 
officer  must  be  a  tyrant  in  order  to  command. 

The  nobility  of  Europe  have  adopted  a  military  maxim 
suited  to  their  ideas  of  man,  and  their  false  notions  of 
courage :  "  the  worse  the  man  the  better  the  soldier,"  and, 
therefore,  they,  too,  believed  that  the  men  of  the  ]N"orth 
would  not  fight,  and  would  be  scattered  by  the  fiery  onset 
of  a  Southern  army.  They  forgot  that  the  highest  forms 
of  courage,  the  sternest  and  most  persistent  bravery, 
spring  directly  from  intelligence  and  principle.  They 
ought  to  have  known  that  these  are  stronger  than  passion, 
or  hate,  or  revenge.  They  thought  that  these  freemen  of 
the  E'orth,  accustomed  to  no  restraint,  and  insisting  upon 
thinking  for  themselves,  would  submit  to  no  discipline, 
and  that  the  Northern  army  would  be  only  an  armed  mob. 
The  first  letter- writers  and  observers  from  Europe,  having 


THE  ARMIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA.    525 

known  only  the  machine-movements  of  military  puppets, 
saw  only  tumult,  disorder,  and  inefficiency  in  the  North- 
ern troops. 

They  knew  nothing  of  the  true  nature  of  freedom.  They 
ought  to  have  known  that  what  they  saw,  and  censured  so 
eagerly,  were  indications  of  real  power,  and  that  the  intel- 
ligence of  these  men  would,  of  itself,  soon  render  them 
the  most  obedient  of  soldiers,  because  they  would  obey 
from  principle,  and  as  a  means  of  safety  and  success. 

Perhaps  the  peculiar  and  sterling  qualities  of  American 
troops  have  never  been  exhibited  under  circumstances 
which  could  test  more  severely  the  spirit  of  men,  than  by 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  Since  its  first  organization 
after  the  battle  of  Manassas,  it  has  shown  no  cowardice, 
no  faltering  in  the  face  of  an  enemy,  nor  in  the  perform- 
ance of  any  duty ;  it  has  fought  more  than  half  of  the 
great  and  bloody  battles  of  the  war,  and,  though  never 
wholly  defeated,  it  has  never  been  completely  victorious. 
Victory,  fairly  earned  by  its  own  valor,  has  been  repeatedly 
lost  to  them  by  the  incompetency  or  treachery  of  some  of 
its  commanders,  and  yet  it  has  maintained  its  faithfulness, 
its  discipline,  its  courage,  and  its  confidence  in  itself  and 
in  its  cause. 

Its  steadfast  courage  is  based  on  intelligence  and  prin- 
ciple, and  therefore  it  survives  disaster,  and  springs  up 
afresh  after  the  severest  disappointment.  The  career  of 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  is,  in  many  respects,  a  mortify- 
ing one,  and  yet  it  is  a  very  noble  exhibition  of  the  mili- 
tary capabilities  and  qualities  of  the  freemen  of  the  North, 
and  to  it  yet  may  be  given,  as  its  final  reward,  the  crown- 
ing victories  of  the  war. 

These  qualities  have  been  exhibited  in  a  more  brilliant 
light  by  the  armies  of  the  West,  because  they  have  been 
more  ably  and  faithfully  led,  and  therefore  led  to  victory. 
Many  suppose  there  are  marked  differences  between  East- 
ern and  Western  troops.  The  freer,  more  expansive  life 
of  the  West  gives  somewhat  more,  perhaps,  of  impetu- 
osity to  the  men  of  the  West;  but  wherever  Eastern  and 


526    THE  ARMIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA. 

"Western  troops  have  been  associated,  they  blend  at  once 
into  one  homogeneous  mass,  and  all  differences  vanish, 
and  no  one  could  tell,  from  their  manner  of  fighting, 
whether  they  came  from  the  prairies  or  the  l^ew  England 
hills. 

Eastern  and  Western  soldiers  have  fought  under  very 
similar  circumstances,  with  results  so  similar  as  to  forbid 
either  boasting  or  complaint.  They  sustained  alike  the 
honor  of  our  flag.  Gettysburg  and  Chickamauga  were  not 
only  the  great  battles  of  the  war,  but,  in  each  case,  the 
best  troops  of  the  South  were  matched  against  the  best 
of  the  North.  The  North  and  the  South  were  fairly 
represented  on  these  bloody  fields,  and  the  main  features 
of  the  fighting  were  the  same.  One  was  fought  mainly  by 
Eastern  troops,  and  the  other  mostly  by  soldiers  of  the 
West.  In  each  battle  the  fiery  and  yet  orderly  rush  of  the 
Southern  veterans,  led  by  their  most  trusted  generals,  was 
checked  and  rolled  back  with  terrible  slaughter  by  the 
persistent  firmness,  the  long-enduring  courage  and  skill  of 
the  Northern  troops ;  and  the  two  battles  were  a  true  type 
of  the  war. 

The  Southern  charge  comes  with  the  sweep  and  roar  of 
a  headlong  torrent,  but  the  Northern  lines  are  granite, 
upon  which  it  dashes  and  breaks.  The  men  of  the  West 
fought,  it  is  true,  under  great  disadvantage  at  Chicka- 
mauga. They  were  outnumbered  nearly  two  to  one  from 
the  first,  according  to  the  statement  of  General  Eose- 
crans,  and  nearly  half  of  the  army  on  the  second  day  was 
shaken  from  its  position;  but  the  left,  under  Thomas, 
showed  the  true  qualities  of  Northern  soldiers,  by  hurling 
back  charge  after  charge  of  Longstreet's  chosen  men,  the 
very  elite  of  the  Southern  army,  and  in  numbers  more  than 
double  their  own,  and  compelling  them  to  withdraw  after 
five  hours  of  the  bloodiest  fighting  of  the  war. 

In  these  two  battles  the  fighting  qualities  of  the  North 
and  South  were  tested,  with  the  advantage  of  numbers  on 
the  side  of  the  South,  and  with  results  that  show  the  supe- 
rior steadfastness  and  endurance  of  Northern  troops.    The 


THE  ARMIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA.    527 

Soutli  will  not  believe,  hereafter,  that  it  can  beat  a  Korth- 
ern  army  on  an  equal  field. 

Nor  are  l!^orthern  soldiers  at  all  deficient  in  those  quali- 
ties which  most  distinguish  the  armies  of  the  South.  The 
storming  of  Fort  Donelson,  the  rush  of  Grant's  army  round 
to  the  rear  of  Yicksburg,  and  the  running  of  the  batteries 
at  I^ew  Orleans,  Port  Hudson,  and  Yicksburg,  have  not 
been  matched  by  any  Southern  exploit,  while  the  history 
of  war  scarcely  shows  any  thing  more  brilliant  than  the 
dash  up  the  steeps  of  Mission  Ridge,  and  the  storming  of 
Lookout  Mountain.  The  South  has  performed  nothing 
which  can  bear  comparison  with  these,  and  the  military 
superiority  of  the  North  has,  at  length,  been  fully  estab- 
lished. 

The  conclusion,  then,  which  is  fairly  reached  from  the 
facts  presented,  is,  that  the  American  nation  will  be  able, 
at  any  time  after  this  rebellion  is  over,  to  command  an 
army,  in  numbers,  in  variety  of  its  qualifications,  and  in 
efifective  power,  that  will,  to  say  the  least,  be  second  to 
that  of  no  other  nation,  and  abundantly  sufiicient  for  our 
complete  protection.  With  this  army,  and  with  our  new 
navy,  with  exhaustless  supplies  of  all  kinds,  whether  of 
food  or  munitions  of  war,  with  railways  and  navigable 
rivers  which  enable  us  to  concentrate  troops  and  supplies 
when  and  where  they  are  needed,  we  shall  come  forth  from 
this  struggle  a  great  military  power,  quite  able  not  only 
to  defend  ourselves  from  attack,  but  to  compel  the  powers 
of  Europe  to  relinquish  all  pretensions  to  this  "Western 
World. 

There  are  many,  who  are  decidedly  in  favor  of  prose- 
cuting the  war  until  the  last  vestige  of  rebellion  is  swept 
away  and  the  authority  of  the  government  is  re-established 
over  every  foot  of  our  territory,  who,  nevertheless,  are 
exceedingly  anxious  in  regard  to  the  future,  expecting,, 
after  the  close  of  the  war,  a  long  period  of  depression  for 
every  branch  of  industry,  and  general  commercial  disaster. 
They  know  that  the  country  will  then  be  burdened  with 
an  enormous  debt,  and  they  think  that  the  South,  being 


528    THE  ARMIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA. 

desolated  by  the  war,  tlie  supply  of  her  great  staples  cut 
off,  the  producing  power  of  the  North  largely  diminished 
by  the  destruction  of  life,  our  resources  in  measure  ex- 
hausted, and  our  currency  at  the  same  time  largely  inflated, 
there  must  be  a  season  of  universal  prostration  and  em- 
barrassment. 

Others,  however,  take  a  far  more  hopeful  view  of  the 
future,  and  believe  that  the  country  will  pass  out  of  the  war 
almost  immediately  into  a  more  prosperous  state  than  it 
has  ever  known.  It  is  admitted  that  the  South  will  be  left 
by  the  war  a  comparative  desert ;  that  she  will  be  stripped 
of  nearly  all  the  accumulations  of  her  previous  life;  she 
will  be  destitute  of  almost  every  article  that  belongs  to 
civilized  life. 

The  land,  however,  remains  undiminished  in  fertility, 
and  even  refreshed  by  its  rest,  and  the  laborers  of  the  South 
have  been  mostly  preserved,  by  the  good  providence  of  God, 
amid  the  ravages  of  the  war,  and  that  which  oppressed 
labor  and  hindered  production  has  been  taken  out  of  the 
way.  It  can  not  be  doubted  that,  so  soon  as  the  labor 
system  of  the  South  can  be  reorganized  upon  the  princi- 
ples of  a  free  society,  the  production  of  Southern  sta- 
ples will  be  increased  far  beyond  what  it  was  before  the 
war.  And  when  we  consider  that  this  reorganization  has 
already  begun,  and  is  making  rapid  progress ;  that  thou- 
sands of  plantations  of  sugar  and  cotton  will  be  wrought 
by  free  laborers  this  very  year ;  and  that  this  process  of 
reconstruction  will  go  forward  almost  equally  with  the 
progress  of  the  war,  it  will  be  seen  that,  immediately  and 
before  the  war  closes,  the  great  staples  of  the  South  will 
begin  to  reappear  in  the  markets  of  the  world.  As  fast  as 
territory  is  reconquered  and  made  secure,  it  will  be  occu- 
pied by  the  superior  producing  power  of  free  labor,  and  the 
prosperity  of  peace  will  thus  gradually  return  with  the 
decline  of  the  war,  and  there  will  be  no  abrupt  and  disas- 
trous transition  from  a  state  of  war  to  a  condition  of  peace. 

The  waste  of  the  South  is,  indeed,  to  be  repaired ;  her 
railroads  are  to  be  reconstructed  and  furnished  anew ;  tools 


THE   ARMIES   OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA.       529 

and  macliinery,  dwellings  and  household  furniture  are  to 
be  supplied  for  the  whole  country  which  the  war  has  swept 
over;  but  the  teeming  soil,  under  the  wise  culture  of  free 
labor,  will  pay  for  it  all ;  and  the  supply  of  these  wants  for 
so  vast  a  territory  will  furnish  full  and  profitable  employ- 
ment for  ISTorthern  capital,  skill,  and  labor,  as  the  return 
of  peace  shall  diminish  the  demand  for  the  material  of  war. 
The  manufacture  of  locomotives  and  cars,  and  sugar-mills 
and  cotton-gins,  of  agricultural  machinery,  and  tools  of  all 
kinds,  of  dwellings  and  furniture,  of  steamboats  for  our 
Southern  and  Western  rivers,  will  take  the  place  of  the 
work  of  the  government,  while  the  products  of  the  South 
will  be  ready  to  pay  for  all.  Under  the  system  of  J^orth- 
ern  industry,  moreover,  this  Southern  trade  will  be  as  safe, 
and  will  pay  as  promptly  as  that  of  the  North.  It  will 
aid  us  to  form  a  correct  estimate  of  the  condition  of 
the  country  after  the  war,  and  of  the  ability  which  the- 
nation  will  then  have  to  pay  interest  and  principal  of  its- 
debt,  and  to  expand  with  a  sure  and  healthy  growth,  if 
we  study  the  rate  of  progress  at  which  the  country  has- 
advanced  thus  far,  and  the  amount  and  character  of  our- 
resources. 

Fortunately,  the  statistical  information  which  has  been, 
gathered  by  the  government,  and  by  individual  effort,  is- 
so  varied,  so  full,  and  so  exact,  as  to  present  with  accuracy 
the  actual  progress  and  present  condition  of  the  nation^ 
and  from  these  facts  the  future  may  be  safely  predicted. 
In  September,  1863,  an  International  Statistical  Congress 
assembled  at  Berlin,  at  which  Hon.  Samuel  B.  Euggles,  of 
JSTew  York,  was  present  as  a  delegate  from  the  United 
States,  and  presented  a  report,  which  is  a  condensed  his- 
tory of  the  progress  and  condition  of  this  country.  From 
this  the  reader  will  be  enabled  to  see  what  resources  we 
shall  probably  have  at  our  disposal  for  the  next  quarter 
of  a  century,  for  the  payment  of  our  debt,  and  for  general 
national  progress.  Some  extracts  from  this  report  are  here 
given : 

34  V 


530    THE  ARMIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA. 

"  I.  The  territorial  area  of  the  United  States  at  the  peace 
of  1783,  then  bounded  west  by  the  Mississippi  River,  was 
820,680  square  miles,  about  four  times  that  of  France, 
which  is  stated  to  be  207,145,  exclusive  of  Algeria.  The 
purchase  from  France  of  Louisiana,  in  1804,  added  to  this 
area  899,680  square  miles.  Purchases  from  Spain,  and  from 
Mexico,  and  the  Oregon  treaty  with  England,  added  the 
further  quantity  of  1,215,907  square  miles — making  the  total 
present  territory  2,936,166  square  miles,  or  1,879,146,240 
acres. 

"  Of  this  immense  area,  possessing  a  great  variety  of  cli- 
mate and  culture,  so  large  a  portion  is  fertile,  that  it  has 
been  steadily  absorbed  by  the  rapidly  increased  population. 
In  May  last  there  remained  undisposed  of,  belonging  to  the 
government  of  the  United  States,  964,901,625  acres. 

"  To  prevent  any  confusion  of  boundaries,  the  lands  were 
carefully  surveyed  and  allotted  by  the  government,  and  are 
then  granted  gratuitously  to  actual  settlers,  or  sold  for 
prices  not  exceeding  $1.25  per  acre  to  purchasers  other 
than  settlers.  It  appears,  by  the  report  of  the  Commis- 
sioner of  the  General  Land-office,  a  copy  of  which  is  here- 
w^ith  furnished,  that  the  quantity  surveyed  and  ready  for 
«ale  in  September,  1862,  was  135,142,999  acres.  The  report 
.also  states,  that  the  recent  discoveries  of  rich  and  extensive 
^old-fields  in  some  of  the  unsurveyed  portions  are  rapidly 
filling  the  interior  with  a  population  whose  necessities  re- 
quire the  speedy  survey  and  disposition  of  large  additional 
tracts.  The  immediate  survey  is  not,  however,  of  vital 
importance,  as  the  first  occupant  practically  gains  the  pre- 
-emptive claim  to  the  land  after  the  survey  is  completed. 
The  cardinal,  the  great  continental  fact,  so  to  speak,  is  this : 
that  the  whole  of  this  vast  body  of  land  is  freely  open  to 
.gratuitous  occupation,  without  delay  or  difficulty  of  any 
kind. 

"  n.  The  population  of  the  United  States,  as  shown  by  the 
census  of  1860,  was  31,445,080 ;  of  which  number  26,975,575 
were  white,  and  4,441,766  black,  of  various  degrees  of  color; 
•of  the  blacks,  3,953,760  being  returned  as  slaves.    Whether 


THE  AEMIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA.   531 

any  or  what  proportion  of  the  number  are  hereafter  to  be 
statistically  considered  as  '  slaves,'  depends  upon  contingen- 
cies, which  it  would  be  premature  at  the  present  time  to 
discuss. 

"  The  increase  of  population  since  the  establishment  of 
the  government  has  been  as  follows: 

1790  .        .        .      3,929,827, 

1800  .        .          6,305,987,  increase  .        35.02  per  cent. 

1810  .        .        .      7,239,814,  increase  .     36.45  per  cent. 

1820  .        .          9,638,191,  increase  .        33.13  per  cent. 

1830  .        .        .     12,866,020,  increase  .     38.49  per  cent. 

1840  .        .        17,069,453,  increase  .        32.67  per  cent. 

1850  .        .        .    23,191,876,  increase  .     35.87  per  cent. 

1860  .        .        31,445,080,  increase  .        35.59  per  cent. 

"  This  rate  of  progress,  especially  since  1820,  is  owing,  in 
part,  to  immigration  from  foreign  countries. 
*' There  arrived  in  ten  years — 

From  1820  to  1830 244,490 

From  1830  to  1840 552,000 

From  1840  to  1850 1,558,300 

From  1850  to  1860 2,707,624 

Total 6,062,414 

"Being  a  yearly  average  of  126,560  for  the  last  forty 
years,  and  270,762  for  the  last  ten  years. 

"  The  disturbances  in  the  United  States,  caused  by  the 
existing  insurrection,  and  commencing  in  April,  1861,  have 
temporarily  and  partially  checked  this  current  of  immigra- 
tion, but  during  the  present  year  it  is  again  increasing. 

"  The  records  of  the  Commissioners  of  Emigration  of 
N'ew  York  show  that  the  arrivals  at  that  port  alone  have 
been  for 

Total,  includ'^gi 
From  From  all  other 

Ireland.  Gtermany.  countries. 

1861 27,754  27,159  66,529 

1862 32,217  27,740  76,306 

1863,  up  to  August  20,  7f  months,  64,465  18,724   about  98,000 


(( 


The  proportions  of  the  whole  number  of  5,062,414  arriv- 


532    THE  ARMIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA. 

ing  from  foreign  countries,  in  the  forty  years  from  1820  to 
1860,  were  as  follows : 

From  Ireland, 967,366 

From  England, 302,665 

From  Scotland, 47,800 

From  Wales,       .        .         .        .         .        .         .  7,935 

From  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,         .        .  1,425,018 — 2,760,784 

From  Germany, 1,546,976 

From  Sweden, 36,129 

From  Denmark  and  Norway,    ....  6,540 — 1,588,145 

From  France, 208,063 

From  Italy, 11,302 

From  Switzerland, 37,732 

From  Spain, 16,245 

From  British  America, 117,142 

From  China  (in  California  almost  exclusively),      41,443 

From  all  other  countries,  or  unknown,          .  291,558 —    723,485 

Total, 5,062,414 

"It  is  not  ascertainable  how  many  have  returned  to  for- 
eign countries,  but  they  probably  do  not  exceed  a  million. 

"  If  the  present  partial  check  to  immigration  should 
continue,  though  it  is  hardly  probable,  the  number  of  im- 
migrants for  the  decade  ending  in  1870  may  possibly  be 
reduced  from  2,707,624  to  1,500,000. 

"  The  ascertained  average  increase  of  the  whole  popula- 
tion, in  the  seven  decades  from  1790  to  1860,  which  is  very 
nearly  33 J  per  cent.,  or  one-third  for  each  decade,  would 
carry  the  present  numbers  (31,445,080) 

By  the  year  1870  to .        41,926,750 

From  which  deduct  for  the  possible  diminution  of  immi- 
grants, as  above 1,207,624 

There  would  remain 40,719,126 

"Mr.  Kennedy,  the  experienced  Superintendent  of  the 
Census,  in  the  Compend  published  in  1862,  at  page  7,  esti- 
mates the  population  of  1870  at  42,318,432,  and  of  1880 
at  56,450,241. 

"  The  rate  of  progress  of  the  population  of  the  United 
States  has  much  exceeded  that  of  any  of  the  European 
nations.    The  experienced  statisticians  in  the  present  Con- 


THE  ARMIES  OP  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA.    533 


gress  can  readily  furnish  the  figures  precisely,  showing  the 
comparative  rate. 

"  The  population  of  France  in 


1801   . 

27,349,003 

1841   . 

34,230,178 

1821  . 

.  30,461,875 

1851  . 

.  35,283,170 

1831   . 

32,669,223 

1861   .  ■ 

37,472,132 

Being  about  37  per  cent,  in  the  sixty  years.  It  does  not 
include  Algeria,  which  has  a  European  population  of 
192,746. 

"  The  population  of  Prussia  has  increased  since  1816  as 
follows : 


1816   . 

10,319,983 

1849   . 

16,296,483 

1822  . 

.  11,664,133 

1868  . 

.  17,672,609 

1834   . 

13,038,970 

1861   , 

18,491,220 

1840  . 

.  14,928,603 

Being  at  the  rate  of  79  per  cent,  in  forty-five  years. 
"  The  population  of  England  and  Wales  was,  in 


1801   . 

9,156,171 

1841   . 

16,035,198 

1811  . 

.  10,464,529 

1851  . 

.  18,054,170 

1821   . 

12,172,664 

1861   . 

20,227,746 

1831  . 

.  14,061,986 

"Showing  an  increase  of  121  per  cent,  in  sixty  years, 
against  an  increase  in  the  United  States,  in  sixty  years, 
of  593  per  cent. 

"  III.  The  natural  and  inevitable  result  of  this  great  in- 
crease of  population,  enjoying  an  ample  supply  of  fertile 
land,  is  seen  in  a  corresponding  advance  in  the  material 
wealth  of  the  people  of  the  United  States.  For  the  pur- 
pose of  State  taxation,  the  values  of  their  real  and  per- 
sonal property  are  yearly  assessed  by  officers  appointed  by 
the  States.  The  assessment  does  not  include  large  amounts 
of  property  held  by  religious,  educational,  charitable,  and 
other  associations  exempted  by  law  from  taxation,  nor  any 
public  property  of  any  description.  In  actual  practice,  the 
real  property  is  rarely  assessed  for  more  than  two-thirds 
of  its  cash  value,  while  large  amounts  of  personal  property, 
being  easily  concealed,  escape  assessment  altogether. 


534    THE  ARMIES  OE  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA. 

"  The  assessed  value  of  that  portion  of  property  which 
IS  thus  actually  taxed  increased  as  follows:  In  1791  (esti- 
mated) $750,000,000 ;  1816  (estimated)  $1,800,000,000  ;  1850 
(official  valuation)  $7,135,780,228 ;  1860  (official  valuation) 
$16,159,616,068,  showing  an  increase  in  the  last  decade 
alone  of  $9,023,835,840. 

"  A  question  has  been  raised  in  some  quarters  as  to  the 
correctness  of  these  valuations  of  1850  and  1860,  in  em- 
bracing in  the  valuation  of  1850  $961,000,000,  and  in  the 
valuation  of  1860  $1,936,000,000,  as  the  assessed  value  of 
slaves,  insisting  that  black  men  are  persons  and  not  prop- 
erty, and  should  be  regarded,  like  other  men,  only  as  pro- 
ducers and  consumers.  If  this  view  of  the  subject  should 
be  admitted,  the  valuation  of  1850  would  be  reduced  to 
$6,174,780,000,  and  that  of  1860  to  $14,223,618,068,  leav- 
ing the  increase  in  the  decade  $8,048,825,840. 

"  The  advance,  even  if  reduced  to  $8,048,825,840,  is  suffi- 
ciently large  to  require  the  most  attentive  examination. 
It  is  an  increase  of  property  over  the  valuation  of  1850 
of  130  per  cent.,  while  the  increase  of  population,  in  the 
same  decade,  was  but  35.99  per  cent.  In  seeking  for  the 
cause  of  this  discrepancy,  we  shall  reach  a  fundamental 
and  all-important  fact,  which  will  furnish  the  key  to  the 
past  and  to  the  future  progress  of  the  United  States.  It  is 
the  power  they  possess,  by  means  of  canals  and  railways, 
to  practically  abolish  the  distance  between  the  sea-board 
and  the  wide-spread  and  fertile  regions  of  the  interior, 
thereby  removing  the  clog  on  their  agricultural  industry, 
and  virtually  placing  them  side  by  side  with  the  commu- 
nities on  the  Atlantic.  During  the  decade  ending  in  1860 
the  sum  of  $413,541,510  was  expended  within  the  limits 
of  the  interior  central  group,  known  as  the  '  food-export- 
ing States,'  in  constructing  11,212  miles  of  railway  to 
connect  them  with  the  sea-board.  The  traffic-receipts  from 
those  roads  were : 

In  I860   .    $31,335,031   |   In  1861   .    $35,505,609 
In  1862   .   .    .    $44,908,405 


THE  ARMIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA.        535 

"The  saving  to  the  communities  themselves,  in  the 
transportation,  for  which  they  thus  paid  $44,908,405,  was 
at  least  five  times  that  amount,  while  the  increase  in  the 
exports  from  that  portion  of  the  Union  greatly  animated 
not  only  the  commerce  of  the  Atlantic  States,  carrying 
those  exports  over  their  railways  to  the  sea-hoard,  but  the 
manufacturing  industry  of  the  Eastern  States,  that  ex- 
change the  fabrics  of  their  workshops  for  the  food  of  the 
interior. 

"  By  carefully  analyzing  the  $8,048,825,840  in  question, 
we  find  that  the  six  manufacturing  States  of  'New  England 
received  $735,754,244  of  the  amount;  that  the  middle  At- 
lantic, or  carrying  and  commercial  States,  from  New  York 
to  Maryland,  inclusive,  received  $1,834,911,579;  and  that 
the  food-producing  interior  itself,  embracing  the  eight 
great  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  Wiscon- 
sin, Minnesota,  Iowa,  and  Missouri,  received  $2,810,000,000. 
This  very  large  accession  of  wealth  to  this  single  group  of 
States  is  sufficiently  important  to  be  stated  more  in  detail. 
The  group,  taken  as  a  whole,  extends  from  the  western 
boundaries  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  to  the  Mis- 
souri River,  through  fourteen  degrees  of  longitude,  and 
from  the  Ohio  Hiver  north  to  the  British  dominions, 
through  twelve  degrees  of  latitude.  It  embraces  an  area 
of  441,167  square  miles,  or  282,134,688  acres,  nearly  all  of 
which  is  arable  and  exceedingly  fertile,  much  of  it  in 
prairie,  and  ready  at  once  for  the  plow.  There  may  be  a 
small  portion  adjacent  to  Lake  Superior  unfit  for  cultiva- 
tion, but  it  is  abundantly  compensated  by  its  rich  deposits 
of  copper  and  of  iron  of  the  best  quality. 

"  Into  this  immense  natural  garden,  in  a  salubrious  and 
desirable  portion  of  the  temperate  zone,  the  swelling  stream 
of  population  from  the  older  Atlantic  States  and  from  Eu- 
rope has  steadily  flowed  during  the  last  decade,  increasing 
its  previous  population  from  5,403,595  to  8,957,690,  an 
accession  of  3,554,095  inhabitants  gained  by  the  peaceful 
conquest  of  nature,  fully  equal  to  the  population  of  Sile- 


536    THE  ARMIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA. 

sia,  which  cost  Frederick  the  Great  the  seven  years'  war, 
and  exceeding  that  of  Scotland,  the  subject  of  struggle 
for  centuries. 

"  The  rapid  influx  of  population  into  this  group  of 
States  increased  the  quantity  of  the  improved  land,  thereby 
raising  farms,  more  or  less  cultivated  within  their  limits, 
from  26,689,361  acres  in  1850  to  51,826,395  in  1860,  but 
leaving  a  residue  to  be  improved  of  230,398,290  acres. 
The  area  of  25,146,054  acres  thus  taken  in  ten  years  from 
the  prairie  and  the  forest  is  equal  to  seven-eighths  of  the 
arable  land  in  England. 

"  The  effects  of  this  influx  of  population  in  increasing 
the  pecuniary  wealth  as  well  as  the  agricultural  products 
of  the  States  in  question  are  signally  manifest  in  the  cen- 
sus. The  assessed  value  of  their  real  and  personal  prop- 
erty ascended  from  $1,116,000,000  in  1850  to  $3,926,000,000 
in  1860,  showing  a  clear  increase  of  $2,810,000,000.  We 
can  best  measure  this  rapid  and  enormous  accession  of 
wealth  by  comparing  it  with  an  object  which  all  nations 
value,  the  commercial  marine.  The  commercial  tunnage 
of  the  United  States 

In  1840  was    .     2,180,764  tuns.       |        In  1850  was    .     3,535,454  tuns. 
In  1860  was    .         .     5,358,808  tuns. 

"  At  $50  per  tun,  which  is  a  full  estimate,  the  whole  pecu- 
niary value  of  the  5,358,808  tuns,  embracing  all  our  com- 
mercial fleets  on  the  oceans  and  the  lakes  and  the  rivers, 
and  numbering  nearly  thirty  thousand  vessels,  would  be 
but  $267,940,000 ;  whereas  the  increase  in  the  pecuniary 
value  of  the  States  under  consideration,  in  each  year  of 
the  last  decade,  was  $281,000,000.  Five  years'  increase 
would  purchase  every  commercial  vessel  in  the  Christian 
world. 

"  But  the  census  discloses  another  very  important  feature, 
in  respect  to  these  interior  States,  of  far  higher  interest  to 
the  statisticians,  and  especially  to  the  statesmen  of  Europe, 
than  any  which  has  yet  been  noticed,  in  their  vast  and 
rapidly  increasing  capacity  to  supply  food,  both  vegetable 
and   animal,  cheaply  and   abundantly,  to  the  increasing 


THE  ARMIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA.        537 

millions  of  the  old  world.  In  the  last  decade  their  cereal 
products  increased  from  309,950,295  bushels  to  558,160,323 
bushels,  considerably  exceeding  the  whole  cereal  product 
of  England,  and  nearly  if  not  quite  equal  to  that  of  France. 
In  the  same  period  the  swine,  which  play  a  very  important 
part  in  consuming  the  large  surplus  of  Indian  corn,  in- 
creased in  number  from  8,536,182  to  11,039,352,  and  the 
cattle  from  4,373,712  to  7,204,810.  Thanks  to  steam  and 
the  railway,  the  herds  of  cattle  that  feed  on  the  meadows 
of  the  Upper  Mississippi  are  now  carried,  in  four  days, 
through  eighteen  degrees  of  longitude,  to  the  slaughter- 
houses on  the  Atlantic. 

"  It  is  difficult  to  furnish  any  yisible  or  adequate  measure 
for  a  mass  of  cereals  so  enormous  as  558,000,000  of  bushels. 
About  one-fifth  of  the  whole  descends  the  chain  of  lakes, 
on  which  1,300  vessels  are  constantly  employed  in  the 
season  of  navigation.  About  one-seventh  of  the  whole 
finds  its  way  to  the  ocean  through  the  Erie  Canal,  which 
has  already  been  once  enlarged  for  the  purpose  of  passing 
vessels  of  two  hundred  tuns,  and  is  now  under  survey,  by 
the  State  of  E'ew  York,  for  a  second  enlargement,  to  pass 
vessels  of  ^ve  hundred  tuns.  The  vessels  called  '  canal- 
boats,'  now  navigating  the  canal,  exceed  ^ye  thousand  in 
number,  and,  if  placed  in  a  line,  would  be  more  than 
eighty  miles  in  length. 

"  The  barrels  of  wheat  and  flour  alone,  carried  by  the 
canal  to  the  Hudson  River,  were, 

In  1842     .        .        1,146,292        |        In  1852      .        .        8,937,366 
In  1862       .        .        7,516,397 

"A  similar  enlargement  is  also  proposed  for  the  canal 
connecting  Lake  Michigan  with  the  Mississippi  River. 
When  both  the  works  are  completed,  a  barrel  of  flour 
can  be  carried  from  St.  Louis  to  IN'ew  York,  nearly  half 
across  the  continent,  for  fifty  cents,  or  a  tun  from  the  Iron 
Mountain  of  Missouri  for  ^ve  dollars.  The  moderate  por- 
tion of  the  cereals  that  descends  the  lakes,  if  placed  in 
barrels  of  five  bushels  each,  and  side  by  side,  would  form 


538    THE  ARMIES  OP  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA. 

a  line  ^ve  thousand  miles  long.  The  whole  crop,  if  placed 
in  barrels,  would  encircle  the  globe.  Such  is  its  present 
magnitude.  We  leave  it  to  statistical  science  to  discern 
and  truly  estimate  the  future.  One  result  is,  at  all  events, 
apparent.  A  general  famine  is  now  impossible ;  for  Amer- 
ica, if  necessary,  can  feed  Europe  for  centuries  to  come. 
Let  the  statesman  and  philanthropist  ponder  well  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  fact,  and  all  its  far-reaching  consequences 
— apolitical,  social,  and  moral — in  the  increased  industry, 
the  increased  happiness,  and  the  assured  peace  of  the 
world." 

These  facts  may  well  give  us  great  confidence  in  the 
future  of  the  United  States,  and  dispel  our  fears  of  being 
crushed  by  the  weight  of  our  debt,  or  of  being  seriously 
embarrassed  at  the  close  of  the  war.  Some  of  these  state- 
ments and  calculations  are  worthy  of  particular  attention. 
It  is  estimated  that  our  population  in  six  years  (in  1870) 
will  be  about  42,000,000 ;  for  the  great  increase,  now  prob- 
able in  immigration,  will  prevent  our  general  rate  of  ad- 
vance from  being  materially  lessened  by  the  waste  of  the 
war.  Should  we  close  the  war  in  1864,  the  national  debt 
will  not  be  far  from  $2,000,000,000.  We  shall  have  then, 
in  1870,  a  population  from  three  millions  to  four  millions 
larger  than  France,  with  about  the  same  amount  of  debt, 
and  with,  general  resources  far  greater  than  hers.  Our 
population  will  then  be  about  ten  millions  larger  than  that 
of  Great  Britain,  and  our  debt  little  more  than  half  as 
great. 

But  another  important  fact  is,  that,  while  the  rate  of 
increase  of  our  population  for  the  last  decade  was  about  36 
per  cent.,  the  rate  of  increase  of  our  wealth  for  the  same 
period  was  130  per  cent.  The  wealth  of  the  country  in 
1860  was  estimated  at  about  fourteen  thousand  two  hun- 
dred and  twenty-five  millions.  If  the  same  rate  of  increase 
should  continue  during  this  decade,  the  aggregate  property 
of  the  United  States  in  1870  would  be  about  equal  to  the 


THE   ARMIES  OP  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA.       539 

present  estimated  wealth  of  Great  Britain,  while  we  shall 
have  little  more  than  half  her  debt. 

The  war  has  destroyed  an  immense  amount  of  property 
in  the  South ;  but,  in  the  meanwhile,  the  wealth  of  the  free 
States  has  been  increasing,  probably,  at  a  more  rapid  rate 
than  ever;  for  new  inventions  in  agricultural  machinery 
keep  up  the  rate  of  production  for  our  cereals,  while  they 
are  selling  at  greatly  enhanced  prices. 

Such  calculations  can  only  be  regarded  as  approximately 
correct ;  but  they  may  be  so  far  relied  upon  as  to  give  us 
great  confidence  in  the  future  ability  of  the  country  to  meet 
all  its  obligations,  and  to  keep  up,  at  least,  the  usual  rate 
of  progress.  To  these  statements  the  report  of  the  Com- 
missioner of  the  General  Land-office  should  be  added  in 
regard  to  the  metalliferous  regions  of  the  United  States : 

"  The  report  of  the  Commissioner  of  the  Land-office  shows 
on  what  a  grand  scale  God  has  laid  here  the  foundation  of 
power,  and  provided  abundantly  all  the  elements  of  national 
greatness.  The  facts  presented  prove  that  our  mineral 
wealth  is  in  full  proportion  to  the  extent  of  territory,  and 
that  the  supply  of  the  precious  metals  in  particular  will 
meet  every  want  of  the  country,  even  when  its  population 
shall  amount  to  hundreds  of  millions ;  that  it  will  supply  a 
specie  basis  for  the  whole  business  of  the  continent  when 
it  shall  be  as  densely  populated  as  Europe,  and  when  Amer- 
ica, placed  between  India  and  Europe,  shall  control  the 
commerce  of  the  '  exhaustless  East,'  when,  through  steam- 
ers on  the  Pacific,  and  railroads  across  the  continent,  our 
cities  will  be  nearer  to  Asia  than  London  or  Paris. 

"Among  the  elements  of  national  wealth  and  power, 
iron  and  coal  hold,  perhaps,  the  first  place,  inasmuch  as 
both  these  must  be  so  largely  used  hereafter,  not  alone 
in  commerce  and  the  arts,  but  in  all  the  operations  of 
war. 

"Upon  this  point  the  Commissioner's  report  is  full  of 
interest.    He  says : 


540    THE  ARMIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA. 

*' '  The  extent  of  the  twelve  coal-bearing  States  east  of  the  Missis- 
sippi holds  but  a  small  proportion  to  the  immense  coal-fields  west  of 
that  region,  as  we  have  information  reporting  the  existence  of  coal 
in  Dacotah,  Kansas,  Nebraska,  Colorado,  Utah,  Nevada,  California, 
Oregon,  and  Washington.' 

"It  is  impossible  to  overestimate  the  importance  of  these 
immense  coal-fields  in  the  fature  progress  of  our  country; 
and  when  we  remember  how  coal  is  almost  constantly  asso- 
ciated with  iron,  we  see  on  what  a  vast  scale  God  has  pre- 
pared the  materials  of  civilization  over  millions  of  square 
miles,  where  these  stored-up  riches  wait  for  the  coming  of 
the  people. 

"  The  following  statements  in  regard  to  the  gold  region 
will  doubtless  attract  great  attention.  Though  based  on 
well-ascertained  facts,  they  seem  almost  like  fable : 

"  '  It  stretches  on  the  western  portion  of  the  continent  from  40° 
north  latitude  to  31°  30',  and  from  the  102°  of  longitude  to  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  embracing  portions  of  Dacotah,  Nebraska,  Colorado, 
all  of  New  Mexico,  with  Arizona,  Utah,  Nevada,  California,  Oregon, 
and  Washington  Territory.  Its  breadth  is  about  1,100  miles  from 
north  to  south,  and  of  nearly  equal  longitudinal  extension,  making 
an  area  of  more  than  a  million  of  acres.  This  vast  region  is  trav- 
ersed from  north  to  south,  on  the  Pacific  side,  by  the  Sierra  Nevada 
and  the  Cascade  Mountains,  then  by  the  Blue  and  Humboldt ;  on  the 
east  by  the  double  ranges  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  embracing  the 
Wasatch,  Wind  River  chain,  and  the  Sierra  Madre,  stretching  lon- 
gitudinally and  in  lateral  spurs — crossed  and  linked  together  by 
intervening  ridges  connecting  the  whole  system  by  five  principal 
ranges,  dividing  the  country  into  an  equal  number  of  basins,  each 
being  nearly  surrounded  by  mountains,  and  watered  by  mountain 
streams  and  snows,  thereby  interspersing  this  immense  territory  with 
bodies  of  agricultural  lands  equal  to  the  support  of  not  only  miners, 
but  of  a  dense  population. 

"  '  These  mountains  are  literally  stocked  with  minerals — gold  and 
silver  being  interspersed  in  profusion  over  their  immense  surface, 
and  daily  brought  to  light  by  new  discoveries.  The  precious  metals 
are  found  embedded  in  mountains  of  quartz,  rich  washings  marking 
the  pathways  of  rivers  and  floods.     Besides  their  wealth  in  gold,  na 


THE  ARMIES   OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA.        541 

part  of  the  world  is  so  rich  in  silver-mines  as  Nevada  and  New 
Mexico ;  yet  these  may  be  estimated  only  in  proportion  to  the  gold- 
fields  which  are  in  process  of  development  with  amazing  results. 
The  recent  discoveries  in  the  Colorado  region  of  California,  and  in 
the  region  stretching  thence  away  up  to  and  north  of  Salmon  River, 
in  Washington  Territory,  are  every  day  stimulating  the  mining  en- 
terprise of  our  people.' 

"  In  order  to  show  what  an  amount  of  labor  may  find 
profitable  employment  in  this  mining  region,  the  Commis- 
sioner states  that  what  is  called  a  claim,  in  the  quartz  re- 
gion, is  one  hundred  feet  square.  If  only  one-hundredth 
part  of  the  mountain  district  is  suitable  for  mining,  there 
will  still  be  room  for  three  million  six  hundred  thousand 
claims. 

"  By  another  estimate,  based  upon  a  calculation  of  Gov- 
ernor Evans,  of  Colorado,  he  shows  that  the  gold-bearing 
region  of  our  country  will  give  employment  to  twenty  mill- 
ions of  miners.  He  says  that  quartz  which  yields  $12  per 
tun  will  pay,  under  favorable  circumstances.  There  is, 
however,  much  quartz  which  will  yield  from  $20  to  $500 
per  tun.  There  is  some  which  yields  from  $500  to  $3,000 
per  tun,  and  some  recent  discoveries  are  estimated  as  high 
as  $20,000  per  tun. 

"  '  In  addition  to  the  deposits  of  gold  and  silver,  various  sections 
of  the  whole  mineral  region  are  rich  in  precious  stones,  marble, 
gypsum,  salt,  tin,  quicksilver,  asphaltum,  coal,  iron,  copper,  and 
lead;  together  with  mineral,  medicinal,  thermal,  and  cold  springs 
and  streams.  None  of  these  mines  have  been  worked  for  a  great 
length  of  time,  except  the  placers  of  California,  and  much  the  largest 
portion  of  them  are  comparatively  recent  discoveries ;  yet  the  deeper 
the  mine  is  worked,  the  richer  is  the  ore  or  rock.  Enormous  profits 
are  derived  from  operations  at  depths  of  150  to  200  feet.* 

"The  Commissioner  states  that,  prior  to  the  discovery 
of  gold  in  1848,  the  gold  product  of  the  world  was  only, 
on  the  average,  $18,000,000 ;  now  the  annual  yield  of  our 
own  mines  is  $100,000,000,  and  the  working  of  our  gold- 
bearing  region  has  only  just  begun." 


542    THE  ARMIES  OP  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA. 

The  Commissioner  estimates  tliat  "  within  ten  years  (from 
1863)  the  annual  product  of  these  mines  in  the  precious 
metals  alone  will  be  two  hundred  millions  of  dollars ;  and 
in  coal,  iron,  tin,  lead,  quicksilver,  and  copper,  half  that 
sum."  He  says  :  "  With  an  amount  of  labor  relatively 
equal  to  that  expended  in  California,  applied  to  the  gold- 
fields  already  known  to  exist  outside  of  that  State,  the  pro- 
duction even  now,  including  that  of  California,  would  ex- 
ceed four  hundred  millions  of  dollars  per  year."  He  is 
confident  that  these  mines  may  be  relied  upon  to  pay  prin- 
cipal and  interest  of  the  national  debt,  besides  supporting 
the  government.  These  estimates  do  not  appear  extrava- 
gant to  those  who  have  made  our  mineral  resources  a  sub- 
ject of  study,  and  the  facts  should  be  known  by  the  whole 
American  people,  in  order  to  remove  all  anxiety  in  refer- 
ence to  the  future. 

A  debt  of  $2,000,000,000  would  require  for  the  payment 
of  its  interest  probably  $100,000,000  annually.  If,  then,  our 
other  expenses  are  reduced  to  the  proper  rates  of  peace, 
can  any  man  doubt  our  ability  to  provide  for  these  amounts 
and  an  additional  sinking-fund,  which  would  extinguish 
our  debt  within  a  quarter  of  a  century  ?  The  extent  of  our 
unoccupied  lands,  and  their  great  fertility,  and  the  in- 
creasing inducements  for  immigration,  warrant  the  belief 
that  the  rate  of  increase  of  our  population  will  be  nearly 
as  great  for  the  next  half-century  as  it  has  been  in  the  last 
fifty  years.  Our  ability  to  pay  a  debt  may  be  compared 
with  that  of  France,  whose  debt  is  equal  to  ours,  or  nearly 
so,  and  with  that  of  England,  who  owes  nearly  twice  as 
much  as  we,  by  comparing  our  respective  rates  of  progress. 
The  population  of  France  increased  37  per  cent,  in  sixty 
years,  ending  in  1861,  according  to  Mr.  Buggies.  The  in- 
crease of  England  and  "Wales  was  121  per  cent,  in  the  same 
time;  while,  in  this  period,  the  increase  in  the  United 
States  was  593  per  cent.  Mr.  Kennedy,  in  his  Compend- 
ium of  the  Eighth  Census,  estimates  the  population,  twenty- 
six  years  from  this  time  (1864),  at  more  than  seventy-seven 
millions.    K  this  should  prove  true,  it  will  add  some  forty- 


THE  ARMIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA.    543 

seven  millions  to  the  present  population  ;  and  Mr.  Ruggles 
has  shown  that  the  rate  in  which  wealth  increases  in  this 
country  is  about  four  times  the  rate  of  the  progress  of  popu- 
lation ;  and  this  rate  of  production  w^ould  bring  the  aggre- 
gate wealth  of  the  country  in  1880  to  more  than  seventy- 
five  thousand  millions  of  dollars. 

These  calculations  are  based  upon  actual  results  already 
reached,  and  upon  rates  of  progress  which  the  country  has 
as  yet  maintained,  and  which  men  of  attainment  and  ex- 
perience assume  are  likely  to  be  maintained  in  the  future. 
The  certain  increase  of  the  amount  of  the  Southern  sta- 
ples through  free  labor  and  machinery,  our  unlimited 
jjapacity  for  cereal  production,  our  mineral  wealth,  our 
manufacturing  and  commercial  resources,  should  convince 
all  that  the  national  debt  will  scarcely  be  felt  in  our  future 
progress.  It  has  been  said  by  many  that  Europe  will  not, 
hereafter,  purchase  as  largely  as  heretofore  of  our  agricul- 
tural productions.  It  is  evident,  however,  that  unless  new 
grain-fields  are  opened  in  the  old  world,  its  population 
must  receive  yearly  more  and  more  of  its  food  from 
America;  and,  in  regard  to  the  supply  of  cotton,  unless 
England  and  France  can  obtain  elsewhere  an  article  fully 
equal  in  quality  to  that  of  American  growth,  they  must 
either  buy  our  cotton  or  we  shall  manufacture  it  ourselves, 
and  then  they  must  meet  us  with  our  superior  fabrics  in 
the  markets  of  the  world. 

Let  those  who  fear  that  national  bankruptcy  is  approach- 
ing, consider  what  the  material  progress  of  the  country 
must  be  for  the  next  quarter  of  a  century  while  nearly 
fifty  millions  are  being  added  to  our  population. 

There  are  certain  great  improvements,  of  a  national 
character,  which  are  certain  to  be  made  before  half  that 
period  has  elapsed,  if  this  war  shall  be  speedily  closed. 
At  least  one  great  trunk-line  of  railway  will  be  finished 
to  the  Pacific,  with  Eastern  branches  reaching  the  N^orth- 
ern  lakes,  the  central  Mississippi  Valley,  and  the  Southern 
sea-coast,  and  with  lateral  branches  shooting  out  into  the 
vast  mineral  regions  of  the  far  West. 


544    THE  ARMIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA. 

The  railway  intended  to  connect  the  Ohio  Yalley  with 
East  Tennessee  and  with  Charleston  will  be  finished,  and 
the  l!Torth  Carolina  Railway  will  be  carried  westward  until 
it  connects  with  some  branch  of  the  Pacific  Road,  and  the 
now  ruined  railroads  of  the  South  will  be  put  in  complete 
order  again.  That  internal  coast-line  of  navigation,  even 
now  almost  continuous  from  Long  Island  Sound  to  Florida, 
will  be  perfected  by  connecting  the  bays,  sounds,  and 
channels,  until  our  coastwise  commerce  can  pass  from  New 
York  to  Florida  by  this  inland  route,  safe  alike  from  an 
enemy,  and  from  ocean  storms.  There  will  be  a  ship- 
canal  around  the  falls  of  Niagara,  and  from  the  lakes  to 
the  Mississippi,  and  the  Ohio  River  will  be  rendered  navi- 
gable through  the  year.  In  addition  to  this,  the  government 
must  soon  bring  its  mineral  lands  into  the  market  in  the 
same  manner  as  it  does  all  other  lands,  and  give  a  title  in 
fee  to  the  purchaser. 

"While  these  things  are  in  progress,  the  tide  of  our  popu- 
lation will  set  strongly  in  upon  the  South,  and  the  mineral 
lands  of  the  "Western  mountains,  and  industry  will  plant 
itself  precisely  where  it  is  most  needed  to  sustain  our 
finances,  where  it  will  produce  the  great  staples  of  the 
South  and  silver  and  gold  as  the  basis  of  our  currency, 
while,  at  the  same  time,  the  riches  of  the  Eastern  com- 
merce will  fiow  in  through  the  golden  gate  of  California. 
Any  amount  of  debt  which  this  war  can  create  will  press 
lightly  upon  such  a  country  as  this  will  be,  almost  in  the 
immediate  future. 

Nor  are  any  of  the  predictions  so  freely  made,  at  home 
and  abroad,  in  regard  to  future  divisions  of  our  country, 
likely  to  be  fulfilled. 

No  one  of  the  great  geographical  divisions  of  the  land 
is  complete  in  itself.  Each  is  a  necessary  part  of  one 
great  whole. 

The  mineral  region,  the  great  agricultural  basins,  the 
coast-lines  for  commerce  on  the  two  oceans,  fronting  Eu- 
rope and  Asia,  the  long  lines  of  hill- country  for  manufac- 
tures ;  in  the  East  the  Alleghanies,  stretching  from  Canada 


THE  ARMIES  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  AMERICA.        545 

to  central  Alabama,  and,  in  the  far  West,  tlie  Eocky 
Mountains  and  tlie  ^Nevada,  all  bear  a  due  proportion  to 
each  other,  and  stand  so  related  to  each  other  as  to  be 
bound  inseparably  together  to  form  one  grand  national 
whole,  in  which  each  part,  like  members  of  a  living  body, 
will  be  necessary  to  all  the  rest. 

The  manufacturers  of  the  country  will  purchase  the  sta- 
ples of  the  South  and  the  South-west.  Commerce  will 
make  the  exchanges,  the  agricultural  regions  will  supply 
the  food,  and  the  mines  will  furnish  the  silver  and  the 
gold  as  the  money  basis  of  the  whole ;  and,  bound  together 
as  we  shall  be  by  railways  and  canals,  and  all  the  inter- 
lacing bonds  of  kindred  and  business  and  social  relations, 
warned  by  the  experience  of  this  rebellion,  and  having 
learned  the  value  of  a  great  nationality,  we  shall  remain, 
henceforth  "one  and  inseparable." 
35 


546  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  RUSSIA,  AND  AMERICA: 


CHAPTER  XXXIX, 


SUMMARY  OF  THE  RELATIONS  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  RUSSIA,  AND  AMERICA, 
TO  THE  WORLD  AND  TO  EACH  OTHER. 


From  what  has  been  already  stated,  it  is  not  difficult  to 
see  in  what  direction  the  great  forces  of  the  world  are  to 
be  exerted  in  the  future,  and  the  bearing  which  the  four 
powers  named  above  will  have  upon  the  progress  of  civil- 
ization. 

France  is  the  great  military  power  of  Western  Europe. 
With  Louis  I^Tapoleon  and  his  political  and  military  asso- 
ciates, this  is  the  one  ruling  idea;  the  chief,  if  not  the 
sole  object  of  every  wile  of  state-craft,  as  well  as  every 
movement  in  war.  The  extending  and  consolidating  the 
Papal  power  is  with  them  a  means  to  an  end.  The  com- 
mon religious  sentiment  and  the  ties  of  race  are  being 
used  to  combine  the  Catholic  nations  into  one  grand  organ- 
ization, with  its  head  at  Paris ;  a  vast  military  power,  sup- 
ported by  the  prestige  and  authority  of  the  Pomish  Church, 
and  strong  enough,  as  is  hoped,  to  give  civil  and  ecclesi- 
astical law  to  Europe,  and  perhaps,  also,  to  this  Western 
world. 

France  desires  manufactures  and  colonies,  not  for  the 
benefit  of  the  people,  but  to  create  a  wealth  which  may 
support  the  army,  the  navy,  and  the  splendor  of  the  im- 
perial government.  The  people,  like  the  slaves  on  a  plant- 
ation, are  regarded  simply  as  machines  for  the  production 
of  wealth  which  the  government  may  use. 


THEIR  RELATIONS  TO  THE  WORLD,  ETC.        547 

The  Emperor  adorns  his  capital  with  regal  magnificence ; 
he  constructs  such  fortifications  and  dock-yards  as  those 
at  Cherbourg;  he  creates  navies  and  armies;  he  concen- 
trates, in  short,  all  the  wealth  of  the  empire  in  the  hands 
of  the  rulers  whom  he  directs,  but  he  does  little  or  noth- 
ing for  the  education,  the  comfort,  the  general  progress  of 
the  people.  One  fact,  already  stated,  is  a  whole  volume 
of  history  for  France.  Her  population  has  increased  only 
thirty-seven  per  cent,  in  sixty  years.  Sixty  years  ago  she 
had  more  than  twenty-seven  millions  of  inhabitants ;  she 
has  about  thirty-nine  millions  now.  This  shows  conclu- 
sively how  heavily  the  government  policy  presses  upon  the 
laboring  classes,  and  how  little  hope  the  empire  can  have 
of  keeping  pace  in  growth  with  either  Russia  or  America, 
and  hence  the  need  of  seeking  combinations  of  power 
which  she  can  herself  direct. 

The  empire  is,  in  no  sense,  of  or  for  the  people.  The 
elections  are  simply  a  farce  and  an  imposition.  The  Em- 
peror and  his  ofiiicers  are  the  State ;  they  are  France,  the 
only  France  with  which  the  world  without  has  any  rela- 
tions. The  government  has  really  no  popular  element  in 
it;  the  bayonets  alone  vote,  and  in  accordance  with  the 
orders  given. 

The  government  virtually  owns  say  thirty  millions  of 
laborers,  whose  earnings,  excepting  only  common  food  and 
clothing,  it  consumes  in  navies,  armies,  and  in  imperial 
pomp. 

Such,  politically,  is  France :  a  military  despotism,  seek- 
ing to  dominate  both  over  Europe  and  America.  The 
leaders  of  the  Papal  Church  are,  equally  with  the  Empe- 
ror, intent  upon  the  military  aggrandizement  of  France; 
but  with  them  this  military  power  is  not  an  end,  but  a 
means  to  extend,  in  both  hemispheres,  the  exclusive  domin- 
ion of  the  Romish  Church.  Thus  the  Jesuits  use  the 
military  strength  of  the  empire  to  advance  the  Church, 
and  Louis  Kapoleon,  on  his  part,  sustains  the  Church, 
and  excites  her  ambition,  and  extends  her  influence,  in 
order  that  he  may  use  it  all  to  create,  consolidate,  and 


548  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  RUSSIA,  AND  AMERICA: 

secure  a  military  empire  that  shall,  if  possible,  rule  the 
world.  Unless  France  is  again  revolutionized,  she  will 
very  soon  embody  the  three  forms  of  despotism  which 
have  cursed  the  world:  the  ecclesiastical,  the  political,  and 
the  military. 

Should  Louis  JTapoleon  succeed  in  so  allying  all  the 
Papal  States  of  Europe  to  France  that  he  could  wield  the 
military  power  of  all  combined,  and  then  this  force  should 
be  controlled  by  Jesuit  statesmen,  it  would,  of  course,  be 
used  everywhere  to  repress  free  institutions,  whether  relig- 
ious or  political;  it  would  become,  in  both  hemispheres, 
the  most  formidable  foe  of  freedom  and  human  progress 
that  has  arisen  in  modern  times. 

The  Papal  Church  is  bound  by  her  nature  her  princi- 
ples, and  all  her  past  history,  to  the  monarchical  form  of 
government — to  the  theory  that  the  people  have  no  right 
of  choice  in  rulers,  nor  authority  to  shape  the  laws  by 
which  they  are  governed ;  her  spirit  is  that  of  a  despotism 
from  which  the  people  can  have  no  appeal,  and  in  this  she 
can  not  change,  for  that  would  annihilate  the  Papacy,  and 
sink  it  to  the  level  of  a  mere  religious  denomination.  The 
Homish  Church  must  and  will,  from  its  very  nature,  com- 
pel obedience  to  itself  as  the  only  true  Church,  to  the  full 
extent  of  her  power,  and,  therefore,  the  most  alarming 
feature  in  the  immediate  future  of  Europe  is  the  rapid 
growth  of  the  military  power  of  France,  the  swift  yet 
steady  increase  of  her  political  influence,  and  the  old  per- 
secuting power  of  the  dark  ages,  now  become  a  part  of 
the  empire's  life,  growing  with  its  growth  and  strengthen- 
ing with  its  strength. 

isTo  conspiracy  so  formidable  as  this  has  been  formed 
for  many  centuries  against  popular  civil  rights  and  relig- 
ious freedom.  Its  ramifications  already  extend  to  every 
nation,  but  the  two  chief  objects  at  which  it  proposes  to 
strike  are,  Kussia  and  the  Greek  Church  in  the  East,  and 
the  American  Eepublic,  with  its  free  institutions  and  its 
Protestant  faith. 

The  French  occupation  of  Mexico,  and  the  letter  of  the 


THEER  RELATIONS  TO  THE  WORLD,  ETC.        549 

Pope  to  Jeff*.  Davis,  are  inspired  by  tlie  same  spirit,  a  de- 
sire for  the  overthrow  of  this  Republic. 

The  traitor  President  has  the  sympathies  both  of  the 
Emperor  and  the  Pope,  because  they  hope  that,  through 
him  and  their  own  efforts,  this  free  Republic  and  the 
Protestant  faith  will  be  destroyed  together.  Such  is  the 
France  of  to-day,  aiming  at  the  universal  supremacy  of 
the  military  empire  and  the  Roman  Catholic  Church;  a 
double-headed  despotism,  ready  to  tread  down  the  people 
of  every  land,  occupying  Mexico  already  as  a  point  from 
whence  to  make  its  spring  at  the  United  States. 

It  is  only  necessary  to  refer  to  the  quotations  already 
made,  setting  forth  the  condition  of  the  laborers  of  Eng- 
land, to  show  that  Great  Britain,  though  boasting  of  a/ree 
constitution  and  chartered  liberties,  has,  in  the  practical 
working  of  her  policy,  ground  her  people  down  with  a 
more  crushing  despotism  than  that  of  France,  and  that, 
according  to  the  sl^owing  of  her  own  witnesses,  there  are 
very  few  countries  in  Europe  where  the  condition  of  the 
laborers,  as  a  whole,  is  as  wretched  as  in  England. 

Only  about  one  million  in  England  have  the  privilege 
of  voting,  or  have  any  direct  influence  upon  the  laws  or 
the  government;  and  this  fact,  with  the  other  already 
stated  on  the  authority  of  Mr.  Kay,  that  in  England  fif- 
teen thousand  persons  own  all  the  land,  is  quite  sufficient 
to  prove  that  the  English  system,  whatever  it  may  be  in 
theory,  in  its  practical  working  forces  the  laborers  down 
to  very  near  the  level  of  the  slave,  and  shuts  up  com- 
pletely the  path  of  progress  and  the  door  of  hope.  As 
France  uses  her  laborers  as  so  much  machinery  for  war 
and  to  aggrandize  the  government,  the  empire,  so  Eng- 
land employs  her  people  to  create  wealth  for  the  titled 
landholding  few.  England,  then,  is  a  despotism  of  wealth 
and  rank ;  the  government  is  a  combination  of  capital  and 
the  titled  and  privileged  few,  to  whose  support  the  earn- 
ings of  the  laboring  millions  must  contribute  all  except 
what  is  needed  to  support  a  life  only  a  grade  above  that 
of  the  slave. 


550  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  RUSSIA,  AND  AMERICA: 

The  France  and  tlie  England  with  which  the  world  has 
to  deal,  whose  diplomatic  craft,  whose  armies  and  navies 
the  world  must  meet,  are  alike  the  representatives  and 
watchful  defenders  of  despotism,  seeking  alike  to  establish 
or  maintain  everywhere  governments  in  which  the  people 
have  no  controlling  share — ^governments  founded  upon  the 
theory  that  no  rights  whatever  inhere  in  the  people,  that 
the  laboring  classes  have  no  rights  except  such  as  the 
government  chooses  to  bestow.  To  this  theory  the  soul  of 
the  Holy  Alliance,  England,  has  constantly  given  assent' 
by  her  acts,  and,  therefore,  France  and  England  both  are 
the  deadly  foe  of  republican  or  democratic  freedom,  and 
represent  and  defend  the  old  despotic  forms  of  government 
that'  ill  ^11  ages  have  cursed  and  trodden  down  the  people. 

England  is  a  despotism  of  the  aristocracy,  a  tyranny  of 
title  and  capital,  which,  in  its  workshops  of  Mammon,  is 
grinding  up  the  people  as  surely  as  the  material  upon 
which  the  machinery  works,  the  mills  and  the  agricultu- 
ral systems  producing  poverty  and  degradation  as  regu- 
larly as  they  do  the  cotton  fabrics  of  Lancashire  or  the 
cutlery  of  Sheffield. 

These  powers  belong  to  a  period  now  closing  and  pass- 
ing away,  and  they  seek  to  retard,  by  all  means,  the 
progress  of  that  new  era  of  popular  freedom  which  is 
dawning  upon  the  nations.  For  this  purpose  they  will 
probably  unite  their  strength  hereafter  as  they  have  hith- 
erto done,  for  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  England  can  safely 
separate  from  or  oppose  France  in  any  of  her  ambitious 
schemes.  The  Papal  element  is  strong,  and  growing 
daily  stronger,  in  Great  Britain,  and  it  is  at  least  very 
doubtful  whether  England  could  this  day  be  induced  to 
rally  to  the  defense  of  the  Protestant  faith,  against  any 
attack  which  France  might  choose  to  make.  The  hazard 
is  too  great,  and  her  enthusiasm  for  truth  too  small. 

Precisely  as  she  left  France  to  work  her  will  in  Mexico, 
and  even  encouraged  her,  knowing  perfectly  her  designs, 
so  will  she  do  hereafter,  if  her  own  interests  can  be  pro- 
moted thereby.     The  England  which  would  make  war  to 


r 


.    THEIR  RELATIONS  TO   THE  WORLD,  ETC.  551 

defend  a  religious  principle  we  may  weii  fear  is  gone  for- 
ever. The  England  of  to-day  is  paralyzed  by  the  spell  of 
France,  and  chilled  by  Mammon  selfishness.  These  are  the 
two  great  powers  which  now  present  themselves  on  the 
theater  of  nations  as  the  special  antagonists  of  Russia  and 
America,  the  champions  of  political  and  ecclesiastical  des- 
potism, ihassing  their  banded  strength  against  Russia  and 
the  Greek  Church  on  the  one  hand,  against  this  Protest- 
ant American  Republic  on  the  other. 

It  is  perfectly  evident,  therefore,  that,  as  Europe  now 
stands,  the  only  hope  for  her  of  arresting  or  resisting  this 
new  combination  which  France  is  forming — and  of  which 
England  is  almost  certain  to  become  a  part,  unless  pre- 
vented by  popular  revolution — must  rest  on  Russia. 

The  Protestant  portion  of  Germany  is  in  a  state  of 
chaos :  we  may  hope  that  it  may  yet  be  organized  and  find 
a  fitting  leader,  raised  up  as  Luther  was  of  God ;  but,  as 
things  now  are,  Russia  alone  has  power,  if  any  thing 
human  has,  to  save  the  people  of  Europe  from  this  new 
conspiracy  against  civil  and  religious  freedom. 
^  Russia  has  committed  herself  openly,  fully,  deliberately, 
to  the  cause  of  popular  progress.  Her  new  policy  in  free- 
ing, elevating,  and  educating  her  people,  and  in  making 
the  laborers  landowners,  is  very  far  in  advance  of  any 
thing  done  or  proposed  by  England  or  France.  Her  theory 
is  not  a  democratic  one,  but  it  is,  that  the  government 
should  be  administered  so  as  to  promote  the  highest  wel- 
fare of  the  people,  instead  of  using  the  people  as  machines 
or  plantation  slaves,  merely  to  add  to  the  pomp  and 
splendor  of  an  empire  or  an  aristocracy. 

Strange  as  it  may  at  first  thought  appear,  it  is  never- 
theless true,  that  Russia  is  the  true  point  of  support  for 
liberal  opinions  or  popular  progress  in  Europe.  She,  in 
the  Greek  Church,  can  present  to  Europe  and  the  East  a 
religious  organization  powerful  enough  to  compete  with 
the  Papacy;  and  that  Church  has  a  spiritual  life,  a  liber- 
ality, a  spirit  of  toleration,  of  which  the  Church  of  Rome 
knows  nothing.    The  cordial  friendship  between  Russia 


552  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,   RUSSIA  AND  AMERICA  : 

and  America  will  incline  the  national  Churcli  to  affiliate 
hereafter  with  at  least  our  American  form  of  Protestant- 
ism, and  the  Protestant  faith  may,  in  its  coming  struggle 
with  Rome,  find  that  support  in  Russia  which  England, 
entangled  as  she  is,  and  largely  Catholic  as  she  is  already, 
may  he  unable  or  unwilling  to  give. 

Russia  alone  has  the  military  and  naval  stAngth  to 
resist  the  attack  of  France  and  her  allies.  The  battle  of 
our  iron-clads  effected  for  Russia  precisely  what  it  did  for 
us.  It  delivered  her  from  the  fear  of  the  great  navies  of 
France  and  England.  Thanks  to  the  genius  of  Ericsson, 
and  our  American  artillery,  Russia  can  construct  mail-clad 
batteries  that  no  ocean-going  ship  can  resist.  She  has  a 
fleet  of  these  already,  and  she  can  defy  the  utmost  effort 
of  France  and  England  combined,  and  her  late  reply  to 
France,  on  the  Polish  question,  is  proof  that  she  knows 
her  strength. 

rShe  alone  of  all  Europe  can  give  freedom  to  the  down- 
,^ trodden  East;  she  alone  can  re-establish  on  the  historic 
plains  of  the  old  Greek  Empire  a  nation  with  popular 
rights  and  religious  freedom;  and  mankind  will  have 
reason  to  rejoice  when  the  national  banner  of  the  Greek 
Church  shall  take  the  place  of  the  Crescent  on  the  towers 
of  St.  Sophia.  Who  can  foresee  the  changes  which  will 
be  wrought  in  Europe,  and  especially  upon  all  the  branches 
of  the  Sclavonic  race,  now  that  the  imperial  and  religious 
head  of  that  race  has  planted  himself  on  the  side  of  the 
people,  the  advocate  and  defender  of  popular  progress. 
There  are  many  who  are  deeply  prejudiced  against  Russia 
because  of  her  course  in  Poland ;  but  even  there,  when  she 
is  fully  understood,  she  will  be  justified,  at  least  in  her 
general  course,  by  even  the  friends  of  freedom.  First,  the 
insurrection  in  Poland  was  a  rebellion  of  the  nobility,  and 
not  of  the  people;  it  was,  like  our  own  rebellion,  an  at- 
tempt of  the  aristocracy  to  secure  and  extend  their  power 
over  the  laboring  classes.  Second,  it  is  now  asserted,  by 
good  authority,  that  this  outbreak  received  its  inspiration 
from  Paris,  and  was  an   attempt,  on  the  part  of  Louis 


THEIR  EELATIONS  TO  THE  WORLD,  ETC.        553 

Napoleon  and  his  Jesuits,  to  obtain  a  foothold  within  the 
Russian  dominions,  from  whence  Russia  and  the  Greek 
Church  might  be  attacked  when  the  opportunity  should 
offer.  It  was  a  covert  attempt  to  flank  Russia  by  a  French 
Catholic  outpost,  as  he  is  flanking  the  United  States  by 
the  occupation  of  Mexico. 

The  Russian  Minister  did  not  hesitate  to  inform  the 
French  Emperor  that  the  Polish  insurrection  was  fomented 
in  his  own  capital ;  and  Russia  knew,  and  America  ought 
to  know,  that  she  was  called  to  meet,  in  Poland,  not  an 
uprising  of  the  people,  but  an  insidious  effort  of  France  and 
the  Catholic  leaders  to  wrest  from  her  a  portion  of  her  do- 
minions, and  strike  a  blow  also  at  her  national  Church. 

Russia  is  now  the  grandest  spectacle  in  the  old  world. 
She  stands  the  center  of  a  hundred  millions  of  people,  and 
head  of  that  Church  which  for  a  thousand  years  had  its 
chief  seat  at  Constantinople,  and  made  it  the  second  city 
of  the  East;  and  while  France  and  the  Latin  nations  and 
the  Papacy  are  together  preparing  to  create  an  over- 
whelming despotism,  and  England  seems  caught  in  the 
toils  of  the  conspiracy,  Russia  confronts  them  with  her 
gigantic  power  and  nobler  aspirations,  and,  standing  in 
that  light  of  freedom  with  which  she  is  scattering  her  own 
darkness  away,  she  turns  to  a  new  era  and  a  nobler  life. 

Russia  has  professedly  undertaken  an  experiment  which 
has  not  been  tried  since  the  time  of  the  Jewish  theocracy. 
She  declares  that  she  will  use  the  powers  of  the  govern- 
ment and  the  influence  of  a  national  Church  to  instruct, 
to  elevate,  to  enrich,  and  bless  the  masses  of  the  people. 
The  Czar  assumes  the  position  of  Father  and  Priest  of  his 
people,  and  proposes  to  govern  for  their  benefit;  and  there- 
fore he  invests  them  all  with  the  proper  rights  of  citizen- 
ship, and  offers  to  aid  them  in  every  effort  at  improvement 
by  the  advice  and  influence  and  treasure  of  the  government 
itself.  Doubtless  there  will  be  many  mistakes  and  short- 
comings in  the  carrying  out  of  this  plan,  but  it  is  the 
noblest  announcement  of  the  true  Christian  theory  of  gov- 
ernment which  Europe  has  heard  in  modern  times. 


554  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  RUSSIA,  AND  AMERICA : 

In  all  ages,  and  everywhere  except  in  Judea  and  here, 
the  people  have  heen  used  to  aggrandize  the  monarch,  the 
nobility,  and  the  Church.  Russia  proposes  now  to  reverse 
this,  and  use  both  Church  and  State  power  to  ennoble  and 
bless  the  people  at  large. 

The  progress  of  her  experiment  will  be  watched  with 
intense  interest  by  every  friend  of  the  Gospel  and  of  hu- 
man progress.  She  presents  at  all  points  an  illustrious 
antagonism  to  the  movement  which  now  controls  all 
Western  Europe. 

She  has  cut  herself  loose  from  the  traditions  and  policy 
of  the  past,  and  proposes  henceforth  to  act  upon  the  prin- 
ciple that  governments  are  instituted  for  the  good  of  the 
citizens.  This  new  policy  has  brought  Russia,  so  far  as 
general  purpose  is  concerned,  into  close  sympathy  with 
the  United  States,  as  no  other  European  power  can  be  until 
Germany  is  reconstructed,  and  God  sends  her  a  leader. 

The  national  purpose  in  this  Republic,  also,  is  to  use 
the  powers  of  the  State  and  of  religion  to  promote  the 
welfare  of  the  people,  to  spread  intelligence  among  the 
laboring  masses,  and  to  multiply  their  comforts. 

In  our  republican  State  we  propose  to  accomplish  this 
object  by  civil  institutions  created  by  and  dependent  upon 
the  people  themselves,  and  by  Churches  having  no  con- 
nection with  the  State,  receiving  from  it  no  support  of  any 
kind,  being  merely  voluntary  religious  associations,  depend- 
ing for  support  upon  the  free-will  offerings  of  the  people. 
This  is  the  American  form  of  Christian  civilization,  while 
Russia  proposes  to  attain  the  same  end  by  a  government 
both  patriarchal  and  kingly  in  its  character,  while  at  the 
same  time  the  Church  is  an  integral  part  of  the  State  and 
the  Czar  is  its  imperial  head. 

These  two  forms  of  government,  so  different  and  yet 
aiming  at  the  same  result,  present  the  two  great  experi- 
ments of  modern  times  for  the  elevation  of  the  working 
masses  of  the  nation,  and  it  remains  to  be  seen  which  will 
achieve  the  most  signal  success.  The  tendency  of  the  one 
will,  of  course,  be  toward  despotism  and  oppression  of  the 


THEIR  RELATIONS   TO  THE   WORLD,  ETC.  555 

people,  such  as  characterizes  every  other  monarchy;  that 
of  our  free  government  is  toward  lawlessness,  an  undue 
assertion  of  individual  right,  or,  in  times  of  great  peril 
like  the  present,  toward  a  military  despotism ;  but  if  these 
two  experiments  in  popular  progress  are  faithfully  carried 
out,  they  will  help  to  settle  the  great  problem  of  Christian 
civilization,  whether  a  strong  central  government  and  a 
national  Church,  faithfully  administered  for  the  good  of 
the  citizens,  will  promote  the  general  welfare  and  secure 
the  general  progress  equally  with  those  democratic  forms, 
both  in  the  State  and  the  Church,  which  have  been  adopted 
here.  However  this  may  be,  Eussia  and  America  now 
stand  before  the  world  as  the  leaders  of  the  two  great 
forms  of  popular  progress,  and  both  are  confronted  and 
threatened  by  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  despotisms  of 
"Western  Europe.  Their  interests  are  identical,  their  fields 
of  action  so  remote  from  each  other  as  to  render  unlikely 
any  future  collision,  their  enemies  are  the  same,  and  it  is 
not  improbable  that  they  may  yet  unite  to  free  themselves 
and  the  nations,  on  land  and  on  the  sea,  from  the  arro- 
gant assumptions  of  France,  England,  and  the  Papacy. 


656  THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE. 


CHAPTER  XL 


THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE. 


The  subjects  treated  of  in  the  preceding  chapters  lead 
naturally  to  the  consideration  of  what  is  called  "  The 
Monroe  Doctrine,"  and  to  inquire  whether  that  announce- 
ment of  the  American  government  was  intended  only  to 
serve  an  occasion,  or  whether  that  declaration  sets  forth  a 
policy  upon  which  our  national  safety,  and  even  our  exist- 
ence as  a  Republic,  depends. 

.  It  is  necessary  to  the  full  understanding  of  this  matter, 
that  one  should  consider  the  causes  which  induced  our 
government  thus  to  declare  its  intentions. 

The  history  of  Europe  presents  many  examples  of  com- 
binations among  different  nations  to  repress  the  growing 
power  or  ambition  of  some  monarch  or  kingdom  that 
threatened  the  peace  or  liberty  of  the  rest,  but  no  regular 
system  for  such  a  purpose  was  formed  and  agreed  upon 
until  the  Congress  of  Vienna.  The  career  of  Napoleon 
had  shown  Europe  the  necessity  of  some  kind  of  union 
among  the  powers  for  mutual  protection  against  any  fu- 
ture Bonaparte  that  might  arise ;  and  after  his  overthrow 
and  at  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  the  so-called  Holy  Alli- 
ance was  formed,  by  which  Europe  was  placed  under  the 
joint  supervision  and  control  of  five  "  Great  Powers/' 
Great  Britain,  France,  Austria,  Russia,  and  Prussia.  By 
the  decisions  of  these  the  nations  were  to  be  bound.  They 
constituted    themselves    the    guardians    and    trustees    of 


THE  MONBOE   DOCTRINE.  557 

Europe,  and  had,  of  course,  ample  power  to  enforce  their 
opinions  upon  all  the  rest. 

Moreover,  any  three  of  these,  or  any  two,  if  Great  Brit- 
ain or  France  were  one,  could  act  in  any  case  for  the 
whole.  England,  for  private  reasons,  did  not  become,  in 
form,  a  party  to  this  arrangement,  but  she  shared  in  all 
the  negotiations  of  the  Congress,  approved  of  the  system 
as  adopted,  and  has  ever  maintained  and  relied  upon  it 
since — a  cordial,  active  partner  of  the  Alliance,  though 
without  signing  her  name  to  the  paper.  These  self-consti- 
tuted guardians  of  Europe  assumed  the  right  to  interfere 
with  the  concerns  of  any  State  whose  government  or  policy 
did  not  please  them,  and  compel  it,  by  force  of  arms,  if 
necessary,  to  shape  all  its  concerns  according  to  their 
judgment  of  the  case.  They  were  the  European  Supreme 
Court  of  Nations,  and  their  armies  and  their  navies  were 
always  ready  to  execute  their  decrees. 

A  cardinal  principle  of  these  kingly  custodians  of  Eu- 
rope was,  to  maintain  everywhere,  so  far  as  possible,  one 
only  form  of  government,  an  absolute  monarchy,  heredit- 
ary, and  supported  by  due  military  power.  If  a  constitu- 
tional government  were  already  in  existence,  strong  enough 
to  resist,  such  as  England  was,  it  was  to  be  endured  while 
it  must  be;  but  it  was  a  primal  object  with  these  Holy 
Allies  to  repress  and  put  down  everywhere  all  popular 
institutions  and  power,  to  deny  entirely  any  right  in  the 
people  to  choose  their  own  rulers,  or  to  frame  their  own 
laws  and  institutions.  It  was  a  part  of  the  contract  be- 
tween these  five  powers  to  establish  and  support,  wherever 
they  had  the  power,  a  form  of  government  directly  opposed, 
both  in  essential  principles  and  in  every  form  and  feature, 
to  the  free  institutions  of  our  own  Republic.  They  were 
bound  to  put  us  down  whenever  the  occasion  should  offer, 
and  the  intervening  ocean  alone  has  saved  us  from  inter- 
vention and  destruction  while  we  were  yet  in  our  infancy. 

But  the  absolute  rulers  of  Western  Europe  and  the 
Jesuits  have  never  ceased  to  hope  that  this  Eepublic 
might  yet  be  destroyed.    Many  have  been  the  schemes  to 


558  THE   MONROE   DOCTRINE. 

render  us  subservient  to  tlieir  designs  before  tbe  use  of 
steam  on  tbe  sea  bad  brougbt  us  witbin  tbe  reacb  of  tbeir 
arms.  Tbe  first  Napoleon  sold  us  Louisiana  in  order  tbat 
we  migbt  become  a  maritime  rival  of  England.  Subse- 
quently, England,  under  Canning,  approved  of  our  Monroe 
Doctrine,  in  order  to  exclude  France  from  tbe  American 
continent,  and  now  England  unites  witb  France,  botb  to 
occupy  Mexico  and  destroy  tbe  Republic,  in  tbe  very  spirit 
of  tbe  Holy  Alliance,  and  because  sbe  wisbes  to  crusb  a 
rival.  Bonaparte  overtbrew  tbe  government  of  Spain,  and 
her  American  colonies,  freed  from  ber  yoke,  declared  tbeir 
independence.  Tbere  (vas  also  a  popular  movement  in 
Spain,  and  tbe  Cortez  demanded  a  constitution  for  tbe 
people.  Tbe  Holy  Alliance  interfered,  put  down  tbe  popu- 
lar party,  and  restored  absolute  authority  to  Ferdinand. 
Tbe  independence  wbicb  tbe  Soutb  American  States  bad 
just  declared,  tben  received  tbe  attention  of  tbe  Allies,  and 
a  scheme  was  formed,  first  for  reconquering  South  Amer- 
ica for  Spain,  and  then  to  determine  whether  any  thing 
could  be  devised  for  checking  the  young  Republic  of  the 
North.  This  was  the  time  selected  by  Mr.  Monroe  to 
announce  the  policy  which  stands  connected  with  his  name 
as  the  "Monroe  Doctrine."  This  doctrine  was  presented 
in  his  message  of  December,  1823,  in  the  following  words : 

"  In  tbe  wars  of  the  European  powers,  in  matters  relat- 
ing to  themselves,  we  have  never  taken  any  part,  nor  does 
it  comport  with  our  policy  so  to  do.  It  is  only  when  our 
rights  are  invaded,  or  seriously  menaced,  tbat  we  resent 
injuries,  or  make  preparations  for  our  defense.  "With  the 
movements  in  this  hemisphere  we  are  of  necessity  more 
immediately  connected,  and  by  causes  which  must  be  ob- 
vious to  all  enlightened  and  impartial  observers.  The 
political  system  of  the  Allied  Powers  is  essentially  differ- 
ent in  this  respect  from  that  of  America.  This  difference 
proceeds  from  that  which  exists  in  their  respective  gov- 
ernments. And  to  the  defense  of  our  own,  which  has 
been  achieved  with  so  much  expense  of  blood  and  treasure, 


THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE.  559 

and  matured  by  the  wisdom  of  their  most  enlightened  citi- 
zens, and  under  which  we  have  enjoyed  most  unexampled 
felicity,  this  whole  nation  is  devoted.  We  owe  it,  there- 
fore, to  candor  and  to  the  amicable  relations  subsisting 
between  the  United  States  and  these  powers,  to  declare, 
that  we  should  consider  any  attempt  on  their  part  to  ex- 
tend their  system  to  any  portion  of  this  hemisphere  as 
dangerous  to  our  peace  and  safety.  With  the  existing 
colonies  or  dependencies  of  any  European  power  we  have 
not  interfered,  and  shall  not  interfere.  But  with  the  gov- 
ernments who  have  declared  their  independence,  and  main- 
tained it,  and  whose  independence  we  have,  on  great 
consideration,  and  on  just  principles,  acknowledged,  we 
could  not  view  any  interposition,  for  the  purposes  of  op- 
pressing them,  or  controlling  in  any  other  manner  their 
destiny,  by  any  European  power,  in  any  other  light  than 
as  the  manifestation  of  an  unfriendly  disposition  toward 
the  United  States.  In  the  war  between  these  governments 
and  Spain,  we  declared  our  neutrality  at  the  time  of  their 
recognition,  and  to  this  we  have  adhered,  and  shall  con- 
tinue to  adhere,  provided  no  change  shall  occur  which,  in 
the  judgment  of  the  competent  authorities  of  this  govern- 
ment, shall  make  a  corresponding  change  on  the  part  of 
the  United  States  indispensable  to  their  security." 

"  The  deep  interest  which  we  take  in  their  independence, 
which  we  have  acknowledged,  and  in  their  enjoyment  of 
all  the  rights  incident  thereto,  especially  in  the  very  im- 
portant one  of  instituting  their  own  governments,  has  been 
declared,  and  is  known  to  the  world.  Separated  as  we 
are  from  Europe  by  the  great  Atlantic  Ocean,  we  can  have 
no  concern  in  the  wars  of  the  European  governments,  nor 
in  the  causes  which  produce  them.  The  balance  of  poiver 
between  them,  into  whichever  scale  it  may  turn  in  its  various 
vibrations,  can  not  affect  us.  It  is  the  interest  of  the  United 
States  to  preserve  the  most  friendly  relations  with  every 
power,  and  on  conditions  fair,  equal,  and  applicable  to  all. 
But  in  regard  to  our  neighbors  our  situation  is  different. 


560  THE   MONROE   DOCTRINE. 

It  is  impossible  for  tlie  European  governments  to  interfere 
in  their  concerns,  especially  in  those  alluded  to," — [of 
instituting  their  own  governments] — "  which  are  vital,  without 
affecting  us;  indeed,  the  motive  which  might  induce  such 
interference  in  the  present  state  of  the  war  between  the 
parties,  if  war  it  may  be  called,  would  appear  to  be  equally 
applicable  to  us.  It  is  gratifying  to  know  that  some  of  the 
powers  with  whom  we  enjoy  a  very  friendly  intercourse, 
and  to  whom  these  views  have  been  communicated,  have 
appeared  to  acquiesce  in  them." — Message  of  Dec.  7, 1824. 

These  messages,  as  well  as  the  general  political  history 
of  that  time,  show  in  the  clearest  light  the  character  and 
designs  of  that  European  movement  against  which  the 
protest  was  directed.  Its  avowed  object  was  to  bring  the 
American  continent  under  the  control  of  the  allied  mon- 
archs  of  Europe,  to  trample  out  all  popular  rights,  put 
down  all  popular  governments,  and  restore  the  reign  of 
absolutism  over  all  this  Western  world. 

Mr.  Monroe  and  his  associate  statesmen  knew  well  that 
the  coming  blow  was  to  be  aimed  at  the  very  life  of  this 
Republic,  and,  indeed,  at  republican  institutions  on  both 
the  American  continents,  and  with  a  courage,  boldness,  and 
firmness  which  might  have  been  profitably  imitated  in  our 
later  dealings  with  Europe,  and  especially  with  France, 
they  declared  that  they  were  resolved  to  resist  all  attempts 
to  impose  the  European  system  upon  part  of  America,  and, 
if  necessary,  they  would  do  this  by  force  of  arms. 

A  writer  in  the  I^wn  Englander  for  October,  1863,  in  a 
very  clear  and  able  article  upon  "  The  Monroe  Doctrine," 
thus  sums  up  its  principles: 

"  1.  That  the  American  continents,  (leaving  out  the  isl- 
ands), are  henceforth  not  to  be  considered  subject  to  any 
future  colonization  by  any  European  nation. 

"  2.  That  we  shall  consider  any  attempt  on  the  part  of 
the  European  powers  to  extend  their  political  system  to 
any  portion   of  this   hemisphere   as  *  dangerous   to   our 


THE   MONROE   DOCTRINE.  561 

peace  and  safety,'  and  of  course  to  be  counteracted  or 
provided  against  as  we  shall  deem  advisable  in  any  case. 

"  3.  That  for  any  European  power  to  interfere  with  any 
American  government  for  the  purpose  of  oppressing  or 
dictating  to  them  unjustly,  or  of  controlling  their  destiny 
by  force  or  threats,  would  be  viewed  by  us  as  *  the  mani- 
festation of  an  unfriendly  disposition  toward  the  United 
States,'  which  we  should  be  called  upon  to  notice  by  pro- 
test or  remonstrance,  or  in  such  way  as  we  should  think 
our  honor  and  interest  required." 

In  this  conspiracy  against  free  institutions  on  this  con- 
tinent, Russia  was  then  engaged,  as  earnestly  engaged  as 
the  rest,  having  offered  to  assist  Ferdinand  in  recovering 
his  colonies ;  but  Russia,  under  Alexander  and  under  ISTich- 
olas,  was  not  the  liberal  Russia  which  she  is  to-day.  The 
whole  aspect  of  Europe  has  changed;  the  Crimean  war 
taught  her  that  her  deadliest  foes  were  among  the  Allied 
Powers ;  she  saw  clearly  that  her  true  interests  are  quite 
independent  of  absolutism  and  of  Western  Europe;  that 
her  aims  are  identical  with  those  of  the  Western  Republic, 
and  that  the  enemies  of  America  are  equally  her  own. 
The  Papacy  strikes  alike  at  Protestantism  and  the  Greek 
Church,  and  those  who  hate  and  fear  our  free  America  are 
equally  hostile  to  a  liberal  Russia,  throbbing  and  expand- 
ing with  a  new  popular  life. 

France  and  England,  when  they  had  resolved,  for  pur- 
poses of  their  own,  to  make  an  attack  on  Russia,  gave  to 
their  plan,  at  first,  the  aspect  of  a  joint  movement  of  four 
of  the  great  regulators  of  Europe,  to  check  the  ambition 
of  one  of  their  own  associates  in  the  Holy  Alliance;  but, 
so  soon  as  they  saw  that  they  could  not  thus  produce  a 
war,  they  abandoned  Austria  and  Prussia,  and  made  the 
attack  alone,  for  reasons  which  have  been  presented  in  the 
previous  chapters  of  this  work ;  and  now  these  same  pow- 
ers, in  connection  with  Spain,  have  undertaken  anew  the 
very  scheme  against  which  Mr.  Monroe,  supported  by 
the  whole  country,  protested  bo  earnestly  and  firmly  in 
36 


562  THE   MONROE  DOCTRINB. 

1823,  and  by  their  manly  courage  averted,  for  a  time,  the 
danger. 

When  this  Southern  conspiracy  first  disclosed  itself  in 
Europe,  it  was  carefully  nourished  and  strengthened;  and 
when  the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion  gave  the  occasion, 
every  crowned  and  titled  foe  of  popular  rights  prepared 
for  what  they  believed  would  be  the  final  overthrow  of 
free  institutions,  and  the  restoration  of  the  Western  conti- 
nent to  European  control,  England  taking  the  grand  in- 
itiatory step,  which  made  all  the  rest  easy,  by  recognizing 
the  traitors  as  lawful  belligerents  and  on  an  equality  with 
the  regular  government. 

As  has  been  already  stated,  commercial  ambition  on  the 
part  of  England,  the  purpose  so  coolly  selfish  of  crippling 
her  American  rival,  and  with  France  a  desire  to  aggrand- 
ize the  Papacy  and  the  Latin  races,  enter  largely  into  this 
new  attempt  to  subjugate  America,  and  these  greatly  in- 
crease our  danger.  This  rebellion,  of  itself,  could  not  have 
lived  through  a  twelvemonth  unaided  from  abroad,  and 
this  its  leaders  have  confessed;  and  it  has  been  cherished 
and  aided  by  France  and  England,  simply  as  their  instru- 
ment to  carry  out  their  own  designs.  Through  the  Con- 
federates, England  and  France  cunningly  wage  a  secure 
war  upon  the  United  States,  the  arms,  powder,  supplies 
of  all  sorts,  being  furnished  to  the  traitors  with  as  much 
good-will  as  if  they  were  for  their  own  armies,  and  the 
traitor  ships  are  sent  forth  as  if  they  belonged  to  their 
own  navies;  and,  to  crown  all,  France  seizes  Mexico 
as  a  point  of  support  for  the  Confederacy,  and  as  a  spot 
to  which  can  be  rallied  every  foe  of  the  United  States, 
for  an  assault  upon  us  whenever  the  favorable  hour  shall 
come. 

The  secessionists  in  Europe  are  already  rallying  to  the 
support  of  that  tool  of  France  and  the  Pope,  called  the 
Emperor  of  Mexico,  and  receiving  titles  of  nobility  at  his 
hands,  and  the  fearful,  cautious  steps  by  which  this  war 
has  been  prolonged,  and  the  want  of  any  firm  remon- 
strances to  the  course  of  France,  have  brought  us  at  this 


THE   MONROE   DOCTRINE.  563 

time  (March,  1864)  within  a  step  of  the  position  where  the 
Southern  rebels  will  be  supported  by  a  consolidated  gov- 
ernment in  Mexico,  backed  by  the  sympathies  and  the 
arms  of  France. 

A  policy  which  has  nothing  positive,  which  lacks  every 
element  of  courage  and  boldness,  which  commits  itself  to 
the  drift  of  circumstances,  has  brought  the  nation  face  to 
face  with  this  deadly  peril,  and  it  now  remains  to  be  seen 
whether  the  American  people  will  rouse  themselves  in 
season  and  demand  from  our  rulers  the  swift  crushing  of 
our  home-traitors  by  the  energetic  use  of  every  war-power, 
by  treating  them  as  traitors  in  justice  to  the  loyal,  and 
then  reassert  the  principles  set  forth  by  Mr.  Monroe,  in 
the  same  spirit  of  comprehensive  statesmanship  and  calm 
courage  with  which  they  were  asserted  at  first. 

The  country  has  not  now  one  moment  to  lose.  This 
Congress  should  annihilate  slavery;  the  rebellion  should 
be  crushed  by  our  blows  in  the  spring  and  early  summer, 
if  there  is  force  enough  in  the  whole  i^orth  to  do  it ;  the 
property  of  the  South,  real  and  personal,  should  be  placed 
forever  beyond  the  reach  of  a  traitor;  and,  at  the  same 
time,  let  the  proper  admonition  be  given  to  Maximilian, 
France,  and  Europe. 

Thus  only,  as  is  believed,  can  our  Eepublic  be  saved,  and 
all  America  be  secured  against  European  control,  and  pre- 
served as  the  grand  theater  for  the  expanding  life  of  free 
institutions. 

Let  Maximilian  once  be  established  firmly  on  our  bor- 
der, and  when  we  have  broken  the  armies  of  the  South, 
the  chief  conspirators,  with  all  whom  they  can  influence, 
will  rally  in  Mexico  to  renew  the  war. 

The  manner  and  spirit  with  which  Louis  iN'apoleon  en- 
tered Mexico  are  well  set  forth  by  the  writer  in  the  ITew 
Englander,  already  referred  to,  Eev.  Dr.  Joshua  Leavitt 
He  says : 

"Our  government  is  generally  regarded  in  Europe  as  a 
mere  aggregation  of  individuals,  to  and  from  which  men 


564  THE   MONROE  DOCTRINE. 

may  come  and  go  at  pleasure,  without  incurring  any  moral 
obligation  or  violating  any  moral  principle. 

"It  is  upon  this  ground  that  we  are  to  explain  what 
appeared  to  Americans  so  shameless  in  the  conduct  of  the 
French  Emperor,  when,  in  his  letter  to  General  Forey,  he 
directed  him  to  treat  any  government  he  might  find  in 
Mexico  as  merely  provisional.  The  government  of  Presi- 
dent Juarez  is  unquestionably  the  constitutional  govern- 
ment of  Mexico,  and  it  has  been  supported  by  the  great 
body  of  the  people  as  such — the  malcontent  priests  and 
their  followers,  and  a  few  factious  chiefs,  only  excepted. 
But  it  originated  solely  in  the  voice  of  the  people,  and 
neither  had  nor  asked  any  other  sanction  than  the  popular 
will ;  and,  therefore,  Europe  pronounces  it  only  provisional, 
and  hence  liable  to  be  replaced  by  another  of  equal  au- 
thority by  any  faction  which  could  get  possession  of  the 
capital,  so  as  to  wield  for  a  moment  the  forms  of  govern- 
ment at  the  accustomed  seat  of  government.  Another 
point  gained  by  this  subtilty  is  to  give  color  to  the  pre- 
text by  which  Mexico  is  held  to  be  bound  by  the  acts  of 
the  transient  usurper,  Miramon ;  for  if  Juarez's  government 
is  only  provisional,  Miramon's  had  as  much  authority  as 
his.  And,  on  no  better  ground  than  this,  the  Three  Great 
Powers,  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Spain,  formed  a  coa- 
lition to  invade  Mexico,  just  as  it  was  recovering  from  the 
disorders  of  a  long  revolution,  in  order  to  coerce  the  pay- 
ment of  Miramon's  bonds,  for  which  the  scoundrel  bankers 
had  paid  the  plundering  brigand  only  at  the  rate  of  four 
or  ^ve  cents  on  the  dollar.  And,  by  the  same  rule,  if  Jeff. 
Davis  had  been  smart  enough  to  seize  Washington  City  in 
1861,  and  inaugurate  himself  as  President  of  the  United 
States,  they  might  by  and  by  be  making  war  against  us 
to  compel  the  payment  of  his  loans,  for  his  government 
would  have  been  provisional,  and  Europe  decides  in  the 
case  of  Mexico  that  a  constitutional  government,  sanc- 
tioned alone  by  the  will  of  the  people,  is  *  only  provis- 
ional.' 

"  If  there  had  been  any  doubt  as  to  the  real  intent  of 


THE  MONROE   DOCTRINE.  565 

the  language  employed  in  the  diplomatic  correspondence 
of  the  Allied  Powers  and  in  the  Emperor's  letter,  it  is 
all  now  dispelled  by  the  action  of  the  French  commander 
since  he  got  possession  of  the  city  of  Mexico.  He  knew 
the  object  of  the  expedition,  and  what  his  master  meant 
by  his  orders.  He  has  treated  the  constitutional  govern- 
ment of  Mexico  as  no  valid  government,  as  a  merely  pro- 
visional arrangement,  a  locum  tenens,  until  military  power 
could  come  in  and  grant  to  the  people  a  government  con- 
formed to  the  fundamental  ideas  of  Europe.  He  first 
appoints,  by  his  own  authority,  a  commission  of  three 
persons,  one  a  renegade  Mexican,  the  instigator  of  the 
invasion,  Almonte;  the  second,  the  Archbishop,  a  servant 
of  the  sovereign  of  Rome,  to  give  the  sanction  of  the 
Pope  to  the  proceeding ;  the  third,  Salas,  the  most  unprin- 
cipled of  all  the  chiefs  who  have  aided  to  keep  Mexico  in 
a  turmoil  for  a  generation.  These  three  convene  a  Council 
of  Notables,  selected  by  themselves,  who  proceed  at  once 
to  declare  Mexico  an  Empire,  and  designate  the  Archduke 
Maximilian,  of  Austria,  for  Emperor,  with  the  provision 
that,  if  he  declines,  the  Emperor  of  France  shall  designate 
a  person  to  be  their  monarch.  Here  we  have  the  true 
intent  of  the  ambiguous  phraseology  which  was  used 
throughout  by  the  Allied  Powers,  of  their  intention  to 
secure  to  unfortunate  Mexico  the  blessings  of  a  stable 
government.  They  meant  a  frame  of  government  not 
originating  with  the  people  in  the  exercise  of  their  own 
inherent  rights,  and  which  they  were  always  at  liberty  to 
change  for  good  cause,  but  one  granted  to  the  people  by 
some  authority  above  them.  It  is  a  legitimate  outgo  of 
the  political  system  of  Europe,  as  adjusted  by  the  Congress 
of  Vienna." 

The  invasion  of  Mexico  was  made  under  the  merest 
shadow  of  a  pretext,  a  vail  so  thin  as  not  to  cover  one 
feature  of  its  real  purpose  from  any  discerning  eye.  To 
enforce  the  payment  of  Miramon's  worthless  bonds  was  a 
monstrous  atrocity;  but  to  make  this  a  pretense  under 


566  THE  MONROE   DOCTRINE. 

which  to  subjugate  a  whole  country,  overthrow  its  institu- 
tions, and  impose  upon  it,  by  force  of  arms,  a  foreign  des- 
pot, is  a  still  deeper  crime  against  God  and  humanity. 
Americans  will  make  a  very  perilous  mistake  if  they  fail 
to  regard  this  armed  occupation  of  a  sister  Republic  as 
any  thing  less  than  one  important  part  of  the  scheme  for 
the  hoped-for  subjugation  of  the  United  States.  The  inva- 
sion of  Mexico  and  the  rebellion  are  the  two  grand  feat- 
ures of  this  French  and  English  plot ;  and,  while  England 
has  devoted  her  energies  more  particularly  to  protecting 
and  aiding  our  home-conspirators,  France  has  been  equally 
busy  with  her  allotted  share  in  the  attempt  to  dismember 
the  Republic,  and  reconquer  America.  It  is  a  blow  at  our 
national  life,  and  in  defense  of  that  life  we  are  bound  to 
use  all  honorable  means  which  may  be  at  our  disposal.  It 
is  aimed  by  the  monarchies  of  Western  Europe  against 
free  institutions  on  this  continent;  it  is  aimed  by  the  Pa- 
pacy against  our  Protestant  faith;  it  is  aimed  at  our  com- 
merce with  Asia  through  excluding  us  from  the  Isthmus 
and  Central  America,  and  with  the  ultimate  intention  of 
wresting  from  us  our  possessions  on  the  Pacific,  and  our 
whole  mineral  territory,  which  Louis  JSTapoleon  has  sur- 
veyed and  mapped  out  already.  So  far  back  as  1847,  the 
French  Emperor  unfolded  his  plan  for  the  occupation  of 
the  Isthmus  of  Panama  and  Central  America,  and  for  a 
ship-canal  between  the  oceans,  for  the  purpose  of  planting 
a  European  power  in  the  center  of  the  continent  to  check 
our  southward  progress  and  control  the  American  route  to 
India.  England,  having  changed  her  views  since  the  time 
of  Canning,  and  fearing  the  rapid  growth  of  the  Republic, 
adopted  his,  and  hence  her  operations  in  Central  America, 
and  also  her  approval  of  the  attack  on  Mexico.  Whatever 
may  be  the  external  aspect  or  attitude  of  these  two  pow- 
ers, their  purposes  remain  unchanged;  they  are  perfectly 
agreed  as  to  their  American  policy,  and,  until  the  relations 
of  Europe  are  materially  changed,  we  can  count  with 
certainty  upon  their  covert  or  open  hostility.  To  permit 
France,  under  such  circumstances,  to  obtain  a  firm  foot- 


THia  MOimOB  DOCTRINE.  567 

hold  on  our  Southern  border,  would  be  nothing  less  than 
national  suicide. 

In  warning  Americans  against  the  establishment  or  the 
strengthening  of  the  Papal  power  on  this  continent,  one 
explanation  should  be  made.  'Ho  true  American  will  ob- 
ject to  a  Church  of  the  Catholic  form  in  this  country — a 
Church  which  should  be  one  among  others,  one  of  the 
religious  denominations  merely,  and  on  a  level  with  the 
rest.  With  the  religious  belief  of  any  man,  or  with  his 
mode  of  worship,  Americans  propose  not  to  interfere.  But 
it  is  quite  another  thing  to  stretch  over  this  continent,  and 
over  this  Republic,  the  power  of  that  politico-ecclesiastical 
despotism  called  the  Papacy,  of  which  Louis  IS^apoleon  is 
one  head  and  the  Pope  the  othe^ — of  which  the  Jesuits 
are  the  inspiring  soul,  and  French  and  other  Latin  armies 
and  navies  are  to  be  the  executive  powers.  Could  Europe 
and  America,  as  France  and  the  Jesuits  design,  be  brought 
under  the  control  of  the  Papacy  again,  it  would  bring 
upon  the  world  a  more  fearful  despotism,  a  bitterer  curse 
than  it  felt  under  Hildebrand  and  the  Innocents.  Let 
Americans  consider  this  subject  in  its  relations  to  our 
Pacific  States,  and  our  commerce  with  Asia.  The  Isthmus 
will  soon  be  the  great  transit-point  over  which  the  Asiatic 
trade  of  the  Americas  and  a  part  of  Europe  must  go,  and 
every  rule  of  national  safety  demands  that  this  route 
should  be  under  the  control  of  an  American  power. 

With  Mexico,  Central  America,  and  Cuba  permanently 
in  the  hands  of  European  powers,  they  could  doom  us  to 
a  second-rate  position  in  spite  of  our  every  efibrt.  They 
could  control,  to  suit  themselves,  the  commerce  of  the 
world,  and  absorb  its  wealth.  Besides,  the  nations  of 
Europe  have  their  own  home-routes  to  Asia. 

France  is  preparing,  in  union  with  England,  to  cross 
Suez  with  the  ship-canal  now  nearly  finished.  Russia  is 
extending  her  lines  from  the  Black  Sea,  by  the  Caspian 
and  the  Aral,  while  she  also  proposes  to  divert  a  part  of 
the  trade  of  Asia  up  the  Amoor,  and  cross  the  continent 
by  railroad   and  water  to   Moscow.     Surely,  then,  this 


568  THE   MONROE   DOCTRINE. 

American  route  belongs  to  Americans ;  and  to  permit  any 
European  power  to  liold  our  own  keys  of  Asia  would  be  to 
sink  from  the  position  of  a  power  among  nations. 

Let  England  and  France  confine  themselves  within  their 
appropriate  limits,  and  then,  in  the  natural  course  of 
events,  by  peaceful  growth  and  fair  contract,  we  shall  ob- 
tain, in  due  time,  whatever  we  require.  Their  officious, 
arrogant,  and  hostile  interference  will  not  be  endured, 
unless  we  are  either  blind  to  our  most  important  interests 
or  have  lost  the  spirit  of  our  fathers. 

The  sun  is  not  more  certain  to  rise  than  that  France,  in 
possession  of  Mexico  and  Central  America,  would,  with 
the  help  of  England,  exclude  us  from  the  routes  of  the 
Isthmus,  and  this  would  first  destroy  our  participation  in 
the  commerce  of  the  East,  and  then,  with  the  Pacific 
ports  of  Mexico  and  Central  America  in  the  hands  of  a 
hostile  power,  what  could  save  California,  connected  with 
us  only  by  the  Cape  or  two  thousand  miles  of  railway? 
Viewed  from  any  point,  the  movement  of  France  involves 
the  question  of  life  or  death  for  this  Republic. 

Let  us  thank  God  that  just  in  the  hour  of  our  need  and 
peril  he  has  provided  for  us  the  means  of  defense.  Before 
the  war  we  should  have  seen  no  method  by  which  such  an 
attack  as  Europe  now  threatens  could  have  been  resisted, 
in  the  face  of  their  overwhelming  navies.  They  could 
have  sealed  up  our  whole  coast,  burned  our  cities,  and 
landed  any  number  of  troops  safely  under  cover  of  their 
fleets. 

But  the  revolution  which  we  have  wrought  in  naval 
warfare,  by  our  Monitors  and  improved  artillery,  has 
changed  all  this.  Our  harbors  can  not  now  be  entered, 
our  cities  can  not  be  burned,  no  fleet  can  maintain  its  po- 
sition here  for  the  landing  of  troops,  or  for  blockading  our 
coast.  No  vessels  that  can  cross  the  ocean  can  withstand 
batteries  and  ships  that  we  can  prepare  for  home  defense, 
and  these  ships  on  the  coast  of  Mexico,  and  such  an  army 
as  we  can  easily  place  there,  would  soon  solve  the  ques- 
tion of  European   occupation;    and   then,  when   Europe 


THE  MONROE  DOCTRINB.  569 

has  been  taught  that  these  Americas  are  the  rightful  and 
exclusive  domain  of  Americans,  the  theater  for  an  Ameri- 
can civilization,  which  will  brook  no  foreign  dictation, 
the  United  States,  as  the  leader  of  a  grand  alliance  of 
American  States,  may  present  to  all  nations  the  type  and 
model  of  a  Christian  Republic,  while  Russia,  let  us  hope, 
will  exhibit  to  Europe  and  the  East,  a  Christian  monarchy 
and  a  national  Church  administered  so  as  to  bless,  instruct, 
and  elevate  the  people. 

If  so,  America  and  Russia  will  be  the  two  great  powers 
of  the  future. 


670  CONCLUSION. 


CHAPTER  XLI. 

CONCLUSION. 

CHAEACTERISTICS  OF  THE  EEA  UPON  WHICH  WE  AKE  ENTERING:  THE  ERA 
OF  POPULAR  POWER  AND  POPULAR  PROGRESS— THE  FORCES  WHICH  WORK 
IN  HARMONY  WITH  THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  NEW  AGE— THE  POWERS  THAT 
STILL  CLING  TO  AND  STRIVE  TO  RETAIN  AND  STRENGTHEN  THE  DESPOT- 
ISMS WHICH  ARE  PASSING  AWAY— PROBABLE  RESULTS. 

Although  the  whole  movement  of  society  may  be  re- 
garded as  a  progress  from  a  definite  starting  point  toward 
a  definite  end,  yet  this  movement  is  so  marked  ofl:"  into 
divisions,  stages  in  the  grand  march,  that  we  are  able  to 
see  where  one  great  system  ends  and  another  begins. 
There  is  hardly  room  for  doubt  that  the  nations  are  just 
now  standing  at  the  close  of  a  political  era,  just  at  the 
beginning  of  one  of  those  revolutions  in  which  old  insti- 
tutions, having  lived  beyond  their  time,  either  silently 
crumble  or  are  shattered  by  violence  and  swept  away,  and 
the  world  enters  upon  the  life  of  a  new  age ;  and  the  spirit 
of  that  age  embodies  itself  in  new  forms  of  social,  polit- 
ical, and  perhaps  religious  life. 

At  such  periods  the  powers  which  have  ruled  the  world 
through  an  age,  and  which  have  controlled  and  divided 
among  them  its  authority,  its  honors,  and  emoluments, 
struggle  desperately  to  maintain  their  position.  The  wealth, 
the  power,  the  rank,  the  religious  institutions,  in  short  the 
external  forces  of  society,  are  at  first  all  at  their  disposal, 
and  these  for  a  time  are  used  to  force  back  the  coming 
age,  to  trample  out  the  light  of  new  truth,  to  perpetuate 
the  old  abuses,  and  retain  the  vanishing  past. 


CONCLUSION.  571 

In  such  a  struggle  tlie  era  of  the  old  military  despotisms 
closed ;  Rome,  the  last  of  these,  fell  and  crumbled  away, 
and  the  feudal  system  was  built  upon  its  ruins.  Nation- 
alities then  almost  disappeared.  The  European  popula- 
tions were  a  loosely  joined  conglomerate  of  baronial  tribes 
nearly  independent  of  each  other,  a  structure  of  society 
which  presented  no  basis  on  which  to  rear  a  civilization. 

This  era  was  followed  by  what  may  be  called  the  period 
of  national  consolidation ;  the  age  in  which  the  monarchies 
of  modern  Europe  assumed  their  present  forms,  and  the 
power  of  the  crown  swallowed  up  that  of  the  great  nobles, 
and  the  separated  tribes — for  they  were  little  more — ^became 
a  united  nation,  the  population  crystalized  upon  the  throne. 
Thus  was  laid  the  foundation  upon  which  modern  civiliza- 
tion has  been  raised.  This  system  is  distinguished  by  the 
mingled  despotism  of  capital  and  classes,  the  never-ending 
attempt  to  subject  the  laborers,  nominally  free,  to  the 
dependence,  the  degradation,  the  ignorance,  and  the  pov- 
erty of  slavery,  without  its  name. 

The  spirit  of  the  Gospel,  and  especially  since  the  Refor- 
mation, has  exerted  against  this  whole  system  a  counter- 
working force,  by  separating  the  individual  man,  declaring 
his  worth,  setting  forth  and  demanding  his  rights,  instruct- 
ing and  elevating  him,  until  these  monarchies  and  aristoc- 
racies no  longer  suit  the  spirit  of  the  age.  They  belong  to 
the  past,  their  limit  of  life  is  nearly  reached,  and  we  are 
just  about  entering  upon  a  new  era,  in  which  popular 
institutions  must  take  the  place  of  thrones,  and  despotism 
must  give  place  to  freedom.  Here,  and  elsewhere,  this  is 
the  meaning  of  the  world's  struggle,  and  Europe  will 
probably  be  the  theater  of  a  conflict  as  fierce  and  desper- 
ate as  that  which  is  raging  here ;  but  through  this  agony 
of  nations,  the  era  of  the  people  will  be  born. 

Since  the  first  chapters  of  this  book  were  written,  the 
decided  progress  which  has  been  made  in  putting  down 
the  rebellion,  and  the  character  of  our  recent  military 
operations  in  Virginia  and  Georgia,  have  produced  a 
profound  impression   in   Europe.    Not  only  has  it  been 


572  CONCLUSION. 

rendered  certain  that  our  free  institutions  are  to  triumph 
over  a  slaveholding  despotism,  though  so  powerfully  sus- 
tained by  European  sympathy  and  aid,  but  the  powers  of 
the  old  world  are  amazed  at  the  strength  and  resources 
of  our  Republic,  at  the  gigantic  character  of  our  military 
operations,  and  the  courage,  skill,  and  matchless  endur- 
ance of  our  soldiers. 

Our  bitterest  enemies,  who  at  first  assailed  us  both  with 
reproaches  and  sneers,  are  compelled  to  admit  that  all  the 
previous  history  of  war  shows  no  parallel  to  this  American 
fighting;  and,  much  as  they  are  disposed  to  lavish  all 
their  praise  upon  the  armies  of  the  South,  they  can  not 
conceal  the  fact  that  the  soldiers  of  the  free  North  are 
steadily  pressing  them  back,  and  are  showing  on  every 
battle-field  a  decided  superiority. 

The  ennobling  power  of  freedom  is  manifested,  also,  in 
the  delivered  slaves.  Touched  by  this  transforming  spell 
of  liberty,  they  have  risen,  at  a  single  step,  from  brute- 
hood  to  a  manhood  which  compels  our  admiration.  By 
common  consent  they  are  heroes ;  respected  by  their  fellow- 
soldiers  and  trusted  by  their  commanders,  they  form  a  very 
important  part  of  our  national  army  even  now,  and  it  is 
easy  to  see  that  this  enfranchised  race  will  be  invaluable 
in  defending  America  from  foreign  aggression. 

These  things  have  caused  already  a  marked  change  in 
the  sentiments  of  Europe,  and  a  new  impulse  has  been 
given  to  the  hopes  and  the  power  of  the  people.  The 
friends  of  liberal  institutions,  encouraged  by  our  success, 
are  devoting  themselves  with  new  energy  to  their  work, 
and  some  among  the  ranks  of  power  are,  like  Mr.  Glad- 
stone, keen-sighted  enough  to  discern  the  coming  change, 
and  are  preparing  themselves  to  be  leaders  in  a  revolution 
which  they  are  convinced  must  come,  either  by  sudden 
violence  or  peaceful  reform. 

In  England,  France,  Italy,  Germany,  Sweden,  and  Den- 
mark, the  popular  power  is  making  swift  progress,  and  our 
final  success  will  be  a  signal  for  important  movements, 


CONCLUSION.  573 

which  may  end  in  the  overthrow  of  the  present  institu- 
tions of  Western  Europe. 

There  is,  however,  little  reason  to  hope  that  such  a 
change  can  be  speedily  made,  or  without  such  bloody  con- 
vulsions as  usually  occur  at  the  close  of  an  era — the  earth- 
quakes that  heave  and  shatter  the  foundations  and  the 
structures  of  society.  Our  own  rebellion  shows  with  what 
desperation  privileged  classes  will  defend  their  wealth 
wrung  from  unrequited  labor,  their  social  rank,  and  their 
political  power;  and  the  thrones  and  aristocracies,  the 
rulers  and  owners  of  Western  Europe  will,  in  like  manner, 
fill  their  lands  with  all  the  horrors  of  modern  war,  sooner 
than  yield  to  the  just  demands  of  the  people.  The  spirit 
of  the  English  aristocracy,  in  regard  to  the  progress  of 
popular  freedom  here,  indicates  the  intensity  of  passion 
and  hate  with  which  they  will  oppose  a  similar  movement 
at  home ;  and  the  leaders  of  the  Papacy,  dazzled  with  the 
new  prospects  which  are  opening  before  them  through  the 
policy  of  France,  will  be  as  eager  for  blood  as  they  have 
been  in  the  ages  past.  In  Europe,  moreover,  the  liberal 
movement  will  be  made  at  a  great  disadvantage  compared 
with  our  own.  With  us,  in  the  North,  the  life  and  power 
of  our  great  conflict  are  derived  from  the  religious  senti- 
ment of  the  country.  It  is  supported  by  the  cordial  sym- 
pathies, the  teachings  and  prayers,  of  the  evangelical 
Churches;  it  receives  its  impulse  from  the  faith  of  the 
people. 

But  in  Europe  the  popular  revolution  must  proceed, 
for  the  most  part,  against  the  established  Churches  and 
the  prevailing  religious  sentiment;  and,  as  in  the  former 
French  revolution,  the  tendency  will,  almost  from  neces- 
sity, be  not  only  against  the  present  ecclesiastical  despot- 
isms, but  against  Christianity  itself. 

Here,  as  the  old  structures,  social  and  political,  pass 
away,  the  vigorous  religious  sentiment  forms,  speedily  and 
safely,  new  ones  that  fit  the  spirit  of  the  new  era;  but  in 
Europe  we  have  reason  to  fear  that  society  may  be  reduced 


674  CONCLUSION. 

to  chaos,  thrones,  aristocracies,  and  hierarchies  crushed 
together,  with  no  religious  power  to  shape  a  new  creation. 
Should  this  be  so,  then  the  example  and  united  power  of 
Hussia  and  America  may,  under  God,  prove  the  salvation 
of  the  nations,  presenting,  as  they  will,  two  stable  forms 
of  government,  both  based  upon  and  animated  by  the 
spirit  of  a  true  Christianity,  and  both  using  alike  political 
and  religious  power  to  bless,  instruct,  and  elevate  the 
people. 

These  two  great  powers  will  work  in  harmony  with  the 
spirit  of  the  new  age  upon  which  we  have  entered,  and, 
consequently,  will  be  in  alliance  with  each  other;  the 
one  seeking  the  regeneration  of  the  East,  the  other  the 
helper  and  protector  of  these  Western  worlds. 

England  clings,  with  as  much  desperation  as  the  slave- 
holders here,  to  systems  that  are  passing  away,  and 
dreams  as  vainly  of  binding  the  nations  to  her  mills  and 
workshops  as  they  did  of  ruling  the  world  by  their  cot- 
ton. Lord  Palmerston,  eighty  years  old,  and  struggling 
to  force  back  the  future,  is  a  fit  representative  of  the 
present  England.  Great  Britain,  as  it  would  seem,  is 
committed  to  a  struggle  against  popular  progress,  and  she 
must  bide  the  issue. 

France  is  preparing  to  head  the  last  onset  of  the  Papacy 
against  religious  liberty  and  the  civil  rights  of  man.  Satan 
is  striving  to  rally  the  people  of  Europe  under  an  anti- 
Christian  banner,  and  thus  it  appears  as  if  the  elements  of 
a  world-wide  battle  were  being  prepared  and  arranged, 
and  as  if  the  shock  could  not  be  long  delayed.  In  this 
coming  conflict,  it  is  clear  that  the  general  interests  of 
Eussia  and  America  will  be  identical,  whether  they  are 
formally  allied  or  not ;  and  some  of  the  results  may,  per- 
haps, be  foreseen  without  any  pretension  to  prophetic 
vision,  or  even  uncommon  intelligence. 

It. is  evident  that  the  events  of  our  war  have  essentially 
changed  the  relative  power  of  the  great  nations.  The 
naval  supremacy  of  England  and  France  is  gone,  to  return 
no  more.     It  is  impossible  for  them,  henceforth,  to  regain 


CONCLUSION.  575 

their  former  ascendency  over  the  United  States  or  Russia. 
Our  own  navy  is,  in  efficiency  for  home  defense,  far  more 
than  the  equal  of  that  of  England  or  France.  Neither 
power  can  attack  us  with  any  reasonable  hope  of  success, 
and  the  new  American  floating-battery  and  the  new  artil- 
lery have  rendered  Russia  invulnerable.  France  and  Eng- 
land are  effectually  shut  out  from  her  harbors  and  her 
territory.     They  are  equally  excluded  from  ours. 

Among  the  results  of  a  general  war,  which  seems  inevit- 
able, are  the  occupation  of  Constantinople  by  Russia,  and 
the  expelling  of  every  European  power  from  this  Western 
continent.  England  can  scarcely  escape  being  drawn  into 
the  wake  of  France,  and  sinking,  in  consequence,  into  a 
second-rate  power,  France,  meanwhile,  controlling  the  con- 
solidated Latin  races  and  the  Papal  Church.  What  the 
ultimate  result  of  this  tripartite  division  of  Christendom 
may  be,  can  only  be  determined  when  the  scroll  of  human 
destiny  is  somewhat  more  unrolled,  and  when  the  pro- 
phetic record  shall  become  more  clear.  It  is,  however, 
settled  already,  that  the  two  powers  which  have  hitherto 
played  a  subordinate  part  in  the  world's  affairs,  will  be  the 
chief  and  most  powerful  actors  in  the  new  period  now 
commencing,  while  it  is  also  clear  that  Western  Europe, 
under  the  lead  of  France,  will  be  capable  of  waging  a 
most  formidable  battle  against  Protestantism  in  the  West 
and  the  Greek  Church  in  the  East. 

How  the  Protestant  faith  is  to  be  defended  in  Europe, 
with  France  and  the  Papacy  controlling  all  but  Russia, 
does  not  now  appear,  l^o  Protestant  leader  appears  among 
the  European  nations  in  the  visions  of  the  future.  The 
England,  whose  power  was  wielded  by  Cromwell  in  defense 
of  religious  freedom,  and  whose  voice  was  heard  through 
Milton,  is  gone.  The  England  of  to-day  is  too  selfish,  or 
too  weak,  to  appear,  any-where,  the  assertor  or  defender  of 
the  right. 

She  follows  France,  copartner  in  a  causeless,  heartless 
attack  on  Russia;  she  proposes  to  tread  down  China,  as 
she  has  done  India;  she  escorts  Louis  Napoleon  over  the 


576  CONCLUSION. 

ocean  to  Mexico,  and  bids  him  God-speed  in  the  most 
criminal  invasion  of  modern  times ;  she  throws  all  her  in- 
fluence in  favor  of  the  slaveholding  rebels  of  our  own 
country,  and  coolly  leaves  Denmark  to  her  fate. 

Such  a  government,  of  course,  is  incapable  of  playing 
any  great  or  noble  part  in  the  stormy  future;  and  where 
the  Protestants  of  Europe  are  to  look  for  a  leader,  a  cen- 
tral power  around  which  to  gather  for  organization  and 
defense,  none  now  can  tell.  If  England,  as  she  now  is, 
could  obtain  the  control  of  Europe,  she  would  make  of  it 
one  empire  of  Mammon,  in  which  selfishness,  unchecked 
by  one  great  moral  or  religious  principle,  or  one  generous 
impulse,  would  shape  all  her  policy.  If  she  could  succeed 
in  what  she  aims  at  now,  she  would  become  one  vast  com- 
mercial despotism,  the  money  tyrant  of  the  earth,  making 
spoil  of  all  human  industry  to  enrich  her  nobles  and  to 
make  her  merchants  princes.  Perhaps  it  would  be  better 
for  the  people  to  be  ruled  by  the  Papacy,  than  to  be 
ground  up  as  England's  laborers  are,  even  now,  in  the  mills 
of  Mammon.  The  hope  of  our  own  country  is  in  holding 
firmly  to  the  faith  of  our  fathers  in  endeavoring  to  make, 
by  the  blessing  of  God,  a  true  Christian  faith  the  life  of 
our  national  institutions.  Even  while  these  closing  pages 
were  being  written  another  grand  step  has  been  taken  in 
our  progress  toward  Christian  freedom,  another  glorious 
triumph  has  been  won  for  the  right  in  the  repeal  of  the 
"  Fugitive-slave  Law,"  and  God  and  man  have  both  been 
honored.  "We  are  taking  no  backward  step.  Every  month 
we  commend  ourselves  more  and  more  strongly  to  the 
people  of  Europe. 

Let  Americans  hope  and  pray,  and  add  earnest  labor  to 
the  prayer,  that  our  afilicted  land,  more  dear  to  us  now 
than  ever,  because  of  this  sorrowful  baptism  of  blood  and 
tears,  may  present  herself,  in  the  new  era,  a  new-born 
Christian  power,  consecrated  to  Christ  and  Christian  free- 
dom, an  instrument  chosen  by  our  Lord  for  the  elevation 
of  our  whole  humanity. 


mmmm 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

1     This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 
on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


a      \sv 


DEC  14^96 


10 


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■1963 


